Moon, meteorite and asteroid samples

Real material from space that has been studied in labs on Earth, with citations.

• Apollo lunar samples
  3 studies · About 382 kg of rock and soil brought back by the Apollo astronauts (1969-1972) are still being studied, including for growing plants and finding water inside the Moon.
• Asteroid Bennu samples
  2 studies · NASA's OSIRIS-REx returned about 120 g from asteroid Bennu in 2023, the largest asteroid sample yet.
• Asteroid Ryugu samples
  2 studies · Japan's Hayabusa2 brought back about 5 g of pristine material from asteroid Ryugu in 2020, untouched by Earth's air and life.
• Chang'e-5 lunar samples
  5 studies · China's Chang'e-5 mission returned about 1.73 kg of soil in 2020 from one of the youngest volcanic regions on the Moon, the first new Moon samples in 44 years.
• Comet Wild 2 dust (Stardust)
  2 studies · NASA's Stardust spacecraft caught dust from comet Wild 2 and returned it to Earth in 2006.
• Martian meteorite ALH84001
  1 study · ALH84001 is a meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica in 1984. It became famous in 1996 for a still-debated claim of possible fossil microbes.
• Murchison and other carbon-rich meteorites
  3 studies · The Murchison meteorite fell in Australia in 1969. It and similar carbon-rich meteorites carry amino acids and the letters of the genetic code formed in space.