Asteroid Bennu Becomes Familiar To Attendees At JROMC 53rd Memorial Lecture By Dr. Dante Lauretta Monday In Los Alamos

Dr. Dante Lauretta speaks Monday evening at Duane Smith Auditorium as the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee’s guest. Dr. Lauretta was the Principal Investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid return mission, which successfully collected and returned pristine from the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in 2023, an achievement widely recognized as one of the most significant milestones in modern planetary. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

Anna Llobet Megias, chair of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee, opens the lecture event Monday evening at Duane Smith Auditorium. Photo by Maire O’Neill./losalamosreporter.com

J. Patrick ‘Pat’ Fitch, deputy director for Science, Technology and Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory, introduces Dr. Dante Lauretta, speaker for the 53rd JROMC Memorial Lecture Monday evening in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

Pat Fitch, deputy director for Science, Technology and Engineering at Los Alamos National Laboratory, left, and Dr. Dante Lauretta, Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, Monday evening at Duane Smith Auditorium in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

Scene from Monday’s JROMC lecture by Dr. Dante Lauretta. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

Dr. Lauretta introduces Asteroid Bennu. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

Dr. Dante Lauretta, left, checks out a gift from Ben Sandoval. (Watch for more on this) Photo by Maire O’Neill./losalamosreporter.com