Asteroid Bennu Samples Contain Building Blocks of Life
Samples of Bennu were brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023. Now, a pair of newly published papers reveal that the samples contain precursors to life that formed in a watery environment—a watery environment very similar to the one that prevailed on Earth before life emerged up to four billion years ago.
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.
Ingredients to life on Earth discovered on distant asteroid for first time
Analysis of debris from the nearly 5 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu suggests the ingredients to life on Earth were present in the early days of our solar system, as detailed in a series of papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy. These key-to-life elements have not been detected on extraterrestrial rocks until now.
Scientists find life-friendly molecules in NASA’s asteroid samples
Molecules friendly to life have been found in samples of the asteroid Bennu, which NASA collected with a robotic probe five years ago.
NASA finds ‘key to life’ in Bennu asteroid samples
Rock and dust samples from the Bennu asteroid contain molecules that are the "key to life" on Earth, NASA officials announced on Wednesday.
NASA’s findings from asteroid Bennu suggest solar system could be ‘teeming with the potential for life’
The rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu hold amino acids, ammonia and other molecules essential to life on Earth, NASA reported Wednesday. The findings suggest the conditions necessary for life were widespread across the early solar system and boost the odds that life could have developed elsewhere.
In NASA asteroid samples, scientists discover key building blocks of life
In samples NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists have discovered of organic compounds, including key building blocks of life like amino acids.
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Gobsmacking Study Finds Life on Earth Emerged 4.2 Billion Years Ago
Earth, for context, is around 4.5 billion years old. That means life first emerged when the planet was still practically a newborn. "We did not expect LUCA to be so old, within just hundreds ...
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Asteroid Bennu holds secrets of water evaporated billions of years ago, study shocks
Scientists have discovered a unique sequence of minerals that formed from evaporated water in samples from Bennu.
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 ...
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Precambrian Time
Precambrian time covers the vast bulk of the Earth's history, starting with the planet's creation about 4.5 billion years ago and ending with the emergence of complex, multicelled ...
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‘4.53 billion years ago’: Everything we knew about the Moon could be wrong
The Moon’s formation has been traced to 4.53 billion years ago, nearly as old as Earth itself, according to research by Francis Nimmo and team, published in Nature. 'A secret beneath 30 US ...
Building blocks of life found in samples from asteroid Bennu
Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, ...
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Clear evidence of liquid water, not just frozen ice, discovered on Mars
New research reveals ancient ripples on Mars, providing compelling evidence of long-lost lakes that once existed 3.7 billion ...