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.

The asteroid Bennu has provided groundbreaking insights into the chemistry that may have set the stage for life in the early solar system. Researchers analyzing samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission

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.

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.

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending towards asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid’s surface. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Scientists studying the sample collected in 2023 from asteroid Bennu have announced a dramatic finding: they have identified the key building blocks of life within the sample.

Scientists from NASA and other institutions who have been analyzing the Bennu asteroid sample that returned to Earth last September found molecules, including amino acids, which are essential ingredients of life as we know it.

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