Dante Lauretta
The University of Arizona scientist who led OSIRIS-REx, the mission that brought about 120 grams of the asteroid Bennu back to Earth in 2023.
Key facts
- Born
- 1970
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Planetary scientist
Dante S. Lauretta is a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona who studies meteorites, especially the chemistry of carbon-rich chondrites and what they reveal about the origins of water and life.
He became principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, NASA's mission to collect a sample from a carbon-rich asteroid. The spacecraft was launched in 2016 and reached the asteroid Bennu, about 500 metres across, in December 2018. Bennu surprised the team. Instead of smooth sand, its surface was covered in boulders, and it was flinging small pebbles into space.
On 20 October 2020 the spacecraft reached down with a sampling arm and touched the surface for a few seconds, releasing a puff of nitrogen gas to stir up material. The surface was so loose that the arm sank in, and the collector gathered far more than expected. On 24 September 2023 the sample capsule landed in the Utah desert. It held about 120 grams of rock and dust, the largest sample ever returned from an asteroid.
Studies of the Bennu sample, published in 2025, found amino acids, all five nucleobases used in DNA and RNA, and minerals left by salty water evaporating. The samples show that the ingredients for life were present on asteroids, and that Bennu's parent body once held brines.
On the timeline
- 3 December 2018OSIRIS-REx reaches Bennu
- 24 September 2023Bennu samples land in Utah