Asteroid Bennu seems to have come from a long-lost world on the fringes of the solar system, where saltwater pooled and dried over thousands of years and life’s basic ingredients were widespread.

Scientists have found all five nucelobases alongisde minerals essential for life as we know it on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu.

Samples from asteroid Bennu have delivered insights into the origins of Earth’s water and the organic molecules that may have seeded life.

Scientists have discovered numerous organic compounds in samples from the asteroid Bennu, including key amino acids and the building blocks of DNA and RNA. This discovery suggests that the components necessary for life may have been commonly present in the early Solar System,

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.

The building blocks for life, including salts, organic matter and amino acids have been found in samples returned to Earth from outer space.

It took a while for scientists to gain access to the samples that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission took from the asteroid Bennu, but the wait is proving to be worth it. A new study published January 29 in Nature describes an unexpected discovery in the material delivered by OSIRIS-REx: residues of compounds left over by the evaporation of liquid water.

Samples of asteroid Bennu contain molecules that suggest the "conditions necessary for life" were widespread across the early solar system, according to NASA.

New insights from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission have unveiled intriguing clues about the potential origins of life on Earth. The mission, which launched in Septembe

Discover the fascinating findings from asteroid Bennu: pristine salt minerals reveal the presence of liquid water in the early solar system.

When asteroids like Bennu hit the young Earth, they could have provided a complete package of complex molecules and the ingredients essential to life, such as water, phosphate and ammonia. Together, these components could have seeded Earth’s initially barren landscape to produce a habitable world.