‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid Bennu contains dust older than the solar system

New studies of samples from asteroid Bennu reveal it contains stardust older than the solar system, along with organic materials and ices from interstellar space. Collected by NASA’s OSIRIS‑REx mission and returned to Earth in 2023, the samples show Bennu’s parent body likely formed beyond Jupiter and Saturn before being shattered in a violent collision and reassembled multiple times, Live Science has reported. Scientists say the findings offer rare insight into cosmic conditions before the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.