Context:
New scientific studies of samples brought back from asteroid Bennu suggest that many of the fundamental chemical ingredients required for life on Earth may have originated in space, lending strong support to theories of extraterrestrial contributions to life’s emergence.
Key Discovery
- Samples from asteroid Bennu, collected by OSIRIS-REx, contain:
- Sugars such as ribose (RNA sugar) and glucose
- Amino acids
- All five nucleobases found in DNA and RNA
- This confirms the complete molecular inventory required for life on a single asteroid.
About the Mission
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected samples from Bennu in 2020.
- The sample capsule returned to Earth in September 2023.
- Since then, scientists in the U.S. and Japan have been analysing the material.
