Smithsonian museum to showcase glimpse of rare cosmic relic

The Smithsonian national museum of natural history in Washington DC will display a fragment of the asteroid Bennu, collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, to the public. The carbon-rich rock sample will be exhibited on November 3 at the museum’s meteorite gallery. Other samples from Bennu will also be displayed at the University of Arizona’s Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum and at Space Center Houston. The exhibit will include scale models of the spacecraft and a video showcasing the OSIRIS-REx mission. The Bennu samples could provide insights into the formation of our solar system and the origin of life on Earth.