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Space

The asteroid Bennu is even weirder than we thought

Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is unusually magnetic

By Alex Wilkins

11 March 2025

A mosaic image of asteroid Bennu composed of images collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

The asteroid Bennu is puzzling scientists, with samples from the space rock showing weirder properties than they expected. These include extremely high nitrogen levels and improbably magnetic properties.

Scientists have been analysing clumps of rock from Bennu since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned samples from the asteroid to Earth in 2023. They quickly found these contained a plethora of the chemical building blocks for life, including particles…

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