The “basic building blocks” of life are found in pristine samples of the asteroid Bennu that were brought to Earth, providing fresh insight into the age-old mystery of how life first appeared on our planet.
Work on merely 120 grams of material, roughly the weight of a banana, that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) OSIRIS-REx probe gathered from Bennu in 2020 led to the discovery, which was revealed in two studies released on Wednesday.
The samples were returned in a capsule that OSIRIS-REx dropped off during a 2023 pass-by from Bennu, which was then about 300 million kilometers from Earth.
Water and a high carbon content were already evident from preliminary investigation.
