Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu reveal that it has a bizarre chemical make-up and is ...

The wealth of complex chemistry, including the chemical components necessary for life, make the Bennu samples a powerful tool for investigating how life arose. "Data from OSIRIS-REx adds major ...

The findings “bolster the hypothesis that asteroids like Bennu could have delivered the raw ingredients to Earth prior to the emergence of life,” Dan Glavin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center tells ...

New research backs up the old hypothesis that the key ingredients for life may have come to Earth on an asteroid billions of years ago. A modern case in point: The asteroid Bennu contains all the ...

Of the 20 amino acids in proteins made by life on Earth to form proteins, 14 have been found in the specimens taken from Bennu and studied. In addition, evidence of briny salt that can fuel ...

Scientists have discovered the essential building blocks to life on a sample from a distant asteroid. The sample, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu and returned to ...

In January 2025, scientists announced the discovery of organic molecules— the building blocks of life— in samples retrieved from a distant asteroid named Bennu. What can this discovery reveal ...

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 ...

Bennu, a rocky object classified as a near-Earth ... said that while the asteroid collision would cause massive loss of human life, accurate death toll estimations were difficult to report because ...