Bennu, Asteroid

An Asteroid Sample Just Changed What We Know About Life in Our Solar System
The OSIRIS-REx mission returned to the sample to Earth in September of 2023, and these studies show that it contains amino acids, nucleobases, and minerals known as evaporites—all elements of life’s building blocks.
Analysis of OSIRIS-REx Sample Shows Asteroid Bennu Has Ingredients for Life
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission successfully returned a generous chunk of the asteroid Bennu to Earth in 2023, and scientists have been analyzing it ever since. International scientific teams have published a pair of studies this week highlighting the incredible assortment of materials found in the sample.
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 of rock, ice and water that hints at how life could have formed on Earth.
NASA brought back samples from asteroid Bennu. They revealed clues about the possible origins of life.
A NASA spacecraft has returned asteroid samples that hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world.
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 asteroid’s surface. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Scientists studying the sample collected in 2023 from asteroid Bennu have announced a dramatic finding: they have identified the key building blocks of life within the sample.
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 formaldehyde suggests conditions ripe for forming complex molecules in space.
Asteroid may have planted 'building blocks of life' on Earth, groundbreaking new NASA study finds
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mission has delivered a sample of the asteroid Bennu to Earth and it has been found to contain organic molecules that are key to life
NASA's returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.
New Atlas4d
Asteroid Bennu came from a distant, lost world of salty ponds
Asteroid Bennu seems to have come from a long-lost world on the fringes of the solar system, where saltwater pooled and dried ...
CNN2d
Life’s building blocks discovered in asteroid dust
When the spacecraft completed its long journey home more than a year ago, NASA split up a 120-gram sample, collected in October 2020 from the asteroid Bennu, among researchers around the globe.
IFLScience on MSN3d
Brine From Asteroid Bennu Reveals Conditions Suitable For Life In Early Solar System
REx brought back to Earth 121 grams of material from asteroid Bennu. This is the largest sample ever collected and brought ...
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 ...
First Coast News4d
NASA scientists find 'ingredients for life' in asteroid sample
but finding them in a "pristine sample" in space suggests that objects formed far from the sun, like Bennu, could have been an important source of "ingredients for life" throughout the solar ...