Speaker: Dante Lauretta, University of Arizona, Principle Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Title:  Organics in Asteroid Bennu: Insights from OSIRIS-REx Samples

Abstract: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has delivered pristine samples from the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu, offering a unique laboratory to explore the coupled histories of minerals, ice, and organic matter in the early solar system. I will present the latest results from these analyses, emphasizing the abundance and diversity of organic compounds and their mineral associations that reflect the accretion and processing on an icy planetesimal. These findings reveal how volatile-rich materials were incorporated into planetary building blocks and subsequently altered, providing new perspectives on the role of asteroids as reservoirs and processors of the raw ingredients for life.