About the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission

[Rick]

That Asteroid has a Name!

In 2016, NASA will launch a spacecraft that will return the largest sample of an extraterrestrial object since the lunar missions ended over 35 years ago. The target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission will be a primitive asteroid with the assigned designation (101955) 1999 RQ36. Believing the asteroid deserved a more memorable name, the OSIRIS-REx team, led by the University of Arizona, partnered with The Planetary Society and MIT Lincoln Laboratory (discoverers of the asteroid) to sponsor a contest to rename the asteroid. Over 8,000 students from over twenty-five countries around the world entered the Name that Asteroid! contest. The International Astronomical Union approved the name, Bennu, this month.

More: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/