After a decade and $1.2 billion, NASA reveals its booty from Bennu: 121 grams

Enlarge / A view of eight sample trays containing the final material from asteroid Bennu. (credit: NASA/Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold)

After years of speculation, NASA finally revealed on Thursday the totality of the asteroid sample returned from Bennu to Earth last fall: 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams).

To put that number into perspective, the total mass is only slightly more than one-half cup of sugar or a box of 100 paper clips. It's about the same mass as a small avocado, and you can't even smear it on toast.

So, in some sense, it's a pretty small sample. Especially when you consider the lengths to which NASA and its partners went to retrieve it. The space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center worked with the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin to build the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft for $800 million. It launched in September 2016 on an Atlas V rocket, which cost an additional $183.5 million. And as it has traipsed across the inner Solar System and back, NASA has spent an additional $200 million on mission operations.