Minerals Crucial to Life Found in Asteroid Samples From Space
The building blocks for life, including salts, organic matter and amino acids have been found in samples returned to Earth from outer space.
The building blocks for life found in Asteroid Bennu samples
The study of asteroid samples is a highly lucrative area of research and one of the best ways to determine how the Solar System came to be. Given that asteroids are leftover material from the formation of the Solar System,
Seeds of life found in asteroid rubble pile
Two science teams pored over samples from the B-type asteroid Bennu, finding chemicals linked to the beginnings of life and brine that is of interest for future space exploration.
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.
Big revelation: Life’s ingredients found in NASA’s asteroid Bennu sample
Scientists found 11 minerals in Bennu samples, including calcite, halite, and sylvite, that form when water with dissolved salts evaporates over time, leaving solid crystals. Similar brines have been detected on Ceres and Enceladus.
NASA's Bennu samples contain life's building blocks, including amino acids and DNA/RNA nucleobases
Samples contain all five nucleobases of DNA and RNA, supporting theory that asteroids may have seeded Earth with life's essential ingredients.
Life’s ingredients have been found in samples from asteroid Bennu
Samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the asteroid Bennu had organic molecules and minerals and possibly salty water and other life ingredients.
Asteroid ‘Bennu’ Found to Contain More Building Blocks for Life Than Any Sample Ever Found–An Ancient Brine of Multivitamins
Bennu’s parent asteroid, which formed around 4.5 billion years ago, seems to have been home to pockets of liquid water.
Asteroid Bennu Samples Reveal Big Surprise Involving Building Blocks of Life
NASA scientists discovered a plethora of precursors to life on the asteroid Bennu, demonstrating the importance of Earthbound sample-return missions.
Samples from asteroid Bennu include life's building blocks
Rock and dust samples brought back from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu contain organic matter, including amino acids and all five DNA and RNA bases, as well as salts that formed early in the history of Bennu's parent body.
Asteroid contains building blocks of life, say scientists
Bennu contains minerals and thousands of organic molecules, including the chemical components that make up DNA.
Scientists Just Found DNA’s Building Blocks in Asteroid Bennu – Could This Explain Life’s Origins?
Japanese scientists detected all five nucleobases — building blocks of DNA and RNA — in samples returned from asteroid Bennu ...
NASA’s Historic Asteroid Sample Holds Clues to Life’s Origins
The discovery is a capstone achievement for NASA, which went to great lengths to secure and deliver asteroid samples from asteroid Bennu in 2020.