2 days ago · Researchers have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in unprecedented samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, adding evidence to the idea that asteroids likely ...

2 days ago · The chemical building blocks of life have been found in the grainy dust of an asteroid called Bennu, an analysis reveals. Samples of the space rock, which were scooped up by a Nasa spacecraft and ...

2 days ago · Scientists studying samples that NASA collected from the asteroid Bennu found a wide assortment of organic molecules that shed light on how life arose. By Carl Zimmer Our solar system contains ...

1 day ago · Bennu is considered a primitive asteroid, meaning its chemical makeup is a fingerprint of the early solar system - an ideal source of data on how it developed. ... Not only does Bennu's makeup suggest life's building blocks formed early, but it also suggests they may be more common throughout the solar system than previously thought ...

2 days ago · By NASA and Daniel Stolte/University Communications - January 29, 2025. Nature had the conditions to "cook up" the chemical precursor ingredients for life before Earth formed, according to two studies published by the sample analysis team of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which is led by Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona.. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned a sample from asteroid Bennu ...

2 days ago · Nature had the conditions to "cook up" the chemical precursor ingredients for life before Earth formed, according to two studies published by the sample analysis team of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which is led by Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona.. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned a sample from asteroid Bennu in 2023, and following a year of in-depth analyses in labs across the ...

2 days ago · A new analysis of samples from the asteroid Bennu, NASA’s first asteroid sample captured in space and delivered to Earth, reveals that evaporated water left a briny broth where salts and minerals allowed the elemental ingredients of life to intermingle and create more complex structures. The discovery suggests that extraterrestrial brines provided a crucial setting for the development of ...

2 days ago · Some of these types of molecules are the building blocks for life. This combination of rock, water and organics is one reason OSIRIS-REx chose to sample the organic-rich asteroid Bennu, where water and organic compounds essential to the origin of life could be found. Evaporites − the legacy of an ancient brine

2 days ago · “We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life.” Bennu is both an old and a new asteroid. Like all of the millions of other objects in the asteroid belt, it formed 4.5 billion years ...

2 days ago · While the existence of these minerals on Bennu is a sure indication that the asteroid had the right ingredients for life, the researchers are unsure if the asteroid's environment was too harsh for ...