Scientists from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission recently delivered remarkable findings about asteroid

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

Japanese scientists detected all five nucleobases — building blocks of DNA and RNA — in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission brought back 121.6 grams of asteroid Bennu,

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,

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission returned 121.6 grams of sample from asteroid (101955) Bennu in September 2023 ... and nicotinic acid (vitamin B 3). "In previous research, uracil and nicotinic acid ...

Samples contain all five nucleobases of DNA and RNA, supporting theory that asteroids may have seeded Earth with life's essential ingredients.

Bennu also contains all five amino acids that make up terrestrial genetic material. The NASA mission with the Osiris-Rex probe , which collected samples on Bennu and dropped them over the Earth in ...

"Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu"), by international authors, analysed the samples to reveal thousands of organic molecular compounds, including 14 of the 20 amino acids present in life on ...

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission returned 121.6 grams of sample from asteroid (101955) Bennu in September 2023 ... and nicotinic acid (vitamin B 3). "In previous research, uracil and nicotinic acid ...

The meteor fragments returned by OSIRIS-REx shed light on the entwined history of water and the chemical ingredients of life in the solar system.

Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to research that provides some of the best evidence to date that such space rocks may have seeded early Earth with the raw ingredients that fostered the emergence of living organisms.

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.