NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned from space with a sample of an asteroid named Bennu and scientists got to dive into a tale of rock, ice and water that hints at how life could have formed on Earth.

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.

Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, holds fascinating clues about the origins of organic molecules in ou. Research reveals that these compounds, the building blocks of life, may have arrived on Ceres through asteroid impacts rather than forming locally.

The discovery is a capstone achievement for NASA, which went to great lengths to secure and deliver asteroid samples from asteroid Bennu in 2020.

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 researchers have been studying rock and dust brought back to Earth from the asteroid, Bennu. Those particles revealed what scientists call "the building blocks for life." Researchers found 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to make proteins.

Samples from the asteroid Bennu, brought back by the OSIRIS-REx mission, reveal key molecules for life. These discoveries shed light on the chemical processes that may have seeded Earth billions

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mission has delivered a sample of the asteroid Bennu to Earth and it has been found to contain organic molecules that are key to life