An Asteroid Sample Just Changed What We Know About Life in Our Solar System
Two exciting new studies detail the life-supporting contents of a 4.3-ounce sample of the asteroid Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx ...
Historic asteroid sample reveals the ‘building blocks of life are in fact extraterrestrial in origin,’ scientists say
Scientists have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in the samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission ...
Life’s building blocks discovered in asteroid dust
This week, explore what lurks in asteroid dust, marvel at the world’s largest beaded burial, discover an elusive creature ...
NASA's returned asteroid samples hold ingredients of life from watery world
Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient ...
PBS2d
The Bennu asteroid reveals clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned from space with a sample of an asteroid named Bennu and scientists got to dive into a tale ...
NASA's asteroid sample reveals key chemistry that could lead to life
All forms of Earth life have specific chemicals in their makeup, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists have known that ...
New analysis of asteroid dust reveals evidence of salty water in the early solar system
In October 2020, a van-sized robotic spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of Bennu, a 525-meter-wide asteroid 320 million kilometers from Earth.
NASA Uncovers Life’s Building Blocks in Asteroid Bennu’s Pristine Sample
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission delivered samples from asteroid Bennu, revealing crucial molecules linked to life, including amino acids and nucleobases found in DNA and RNA. The presence of ammonia and ...
Building blocks of life identified in sample collected from asteroid Bennu
This artist’s concept shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending towards asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the ...
Lurking Inside an Asteroid: Life’s Ingredients
Scientists studying samples that NASA collected from the asteroid Bennu found a wide assortment of organic molecules that ...
The Globe and Mail6d
Salty, water-soaked asteroid reveals pathway to life’s origins
and lead author of the second study, described how he and his colleagues extracted compounds by dissolving some of the asteroid sample to make “Bennu tea.” “We found a really complex soup of ...
Phys.org3d
Are we all aliens? NASA's returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft returned 122 grams (4 ounces) of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, delivering the sample canister to the Utah desert in 2023 before swooping off ...