It's an Honor: The Asteroid Hunter - Looking for Life in the Universe with Dr. Dante Lauretta
Chris Richards/University Communications
Dr. Dante Lauretta, an award-winning Regents Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, joins us for an enlightening discussion on today's episode of It's an Honor.
As the director of the Arizona Astrobiology Center and the leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission, Dr. Lauretta brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the conversation. His contributions to NASA have been nationally recognized, with the OSIRIS-REx mission receiving the prestigious Collier Trophy and the 2024 Goddard Memorial Trophy.
Launched on September 8, 2016, OSIRIS-REx began its journey to the asteroid Bennu to collect a small sample of rocks and dust from the surface, becoming the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. The spacecraft delivered the sample to Earth nearly seven years later, on September 24, 2023.
In this episode, we delve into the OSIRIS-REx mission, and how analysis of the asteroid ‘Bennu’ has shaped our understanding of life formation and the potential for extraterrestrial life. Dr. Lauretta also discusses the future of astrobiology at the University of Arizona, his new memoir The Asteroid Hunter (A Scientist's Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System), and his collaboration with Queen guitarist Brian May on their book, Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid. Additionally, he shares insights about the newly established Astrobiology Center, which serves as a hub for diverse scientific endeavors, providing bold and transformative dialogue to make astrobiology discoveries relevant to the experiences of all people on Earth.
Read Dr. Lauretta's memoir: The Asteroid Hunter (A Scientist's Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System)
Photos by Chris Richards/University Communications
