Unprecedented asteroid samples contain organic compounds and minerals crucial to life, scientists say
Scientists have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in the samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu.
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.
Asteroid contains building blocks of life, say scientists
Bennu contains minerals and thousands of organic molecules, including the chemical components that make up DNA.
Could life have come from space? NASA asteroid Bennu samples reveal building blocks of life
NASA's Osiris-Rex mission reveals vital chemical compounds in Bennu asteroid dust, including organic molecules essential for life, supporting the theory that asteroids may have delivered life's ingredients to Earth.
Asteroid samples hint at how life formed on Earth, researchers say
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.
Bennu Asteroid contains building blocks of life, scientists say
"The detection of these key building blocks of life in the Bennu samples supports the theory that asteroids and their fragments seeded the early Earth with the raw ingredients that led to the emergence of life," said astrobiologist Dr Danny Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, lead author of one of the studies.
Asteroid samples rich in building blocks of life, scientists say
Scientists have discovered a rich range of organic compounds in samples retrieved from an asteroid by a US spacecraft, including many of the key chemical building blocks of life. A global analysis of material from asteroid Bennu,
Lurking Inside an Asteroid: Life’s Ingredients
Scientists studying samples that NASA collected from the asteroid Bennu found a wide assortment of organic molecules that ...
Breakthrough Discovery: Asteroid Fragments Reveal Ingredients For Life
In October 2020, a van-sized robotic spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of Bennu, a 525-metre-wide asteroid 320 ...
Scientists find a 'next step on a pathway to life' in space
Samples of organic matter returned from the asteroid Bennu support the theory that asteroids could have brought the building ...