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 blocks of life to Earth.
Did life originate in Bennu asteroid? What scientists say
A team of scientists discovered that the near-Earth asteroid, known as Bennu, contains a wealth of minerals and organic molecules, including many that are building blocks of life. But what has the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu revealed?
Historic asteroid sample reveals the ‘building blocks of life are in fact extraterrestrial in origin,’ 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.
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.
Asteroid samples could redefine our understanding of life’s origins
Pristine samples of the asteroid Bennu transported to Earth contain the 'basic building blocks' for life, shedding new light on the perennial question
Scientists find traces of life’s building blocks in historic asteroid samples
It took a while for scientists to gain access to the samples that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission took from the asteroid Bennu, but the wait is proving to be worth it. A new study published January 29 in Nature describes an unexpected discovery in the material delivered by OSIRIS-REx: residues of compounds left over by the evaporation of liquid water.
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.
NASA’s returned Bennu asteroid samples contain the building blocks for life
NASA's findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.
NASA brought back samples from asteroid Bennu. They revealed clues about the possible origins of life.
A NASA spacecraft has returned asteroid samples that hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world.
NASA's Asteroid Bennu Sample Reveals Mix of Life's Ingredients
Studies of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security--Regolith Explorer) spacecraft have revealed molecules that,
The odds of alien life just increased, NASA says after discovering DNA ingredients on an asteroid
NASA scientists found amino acids, key minerals, and nucleobases for DNA in samples from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission.
NASA’s Historic Asteroid Sample Holds Clues to Life’s Origins
The discovery is a capstone achievement for NASA, which went to great lengths to secure and deliver asteroid samples from ...
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Origin of Life News
2024 — Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural ...
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Asteroid fragments upend theory of how life on Earth bloomed
The Bennu discovery helps to illuminate how, early in the Solar System’s history, asteroids and other planetary building blocks were not just “lumps of stone and ice, but active ‘living’ objects”, ...