In NASA asteroid samples, scientists discover 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.
In samples taken from a distant asteroid, scientists have discovered a host of organic molecules, including key building blocks of life.
The surprising finding suggests the chemical ingredients necessary for life may have been widespread across the early solar system.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which launched in 2016, scooped up bits of dust, soil and rocks from the asteroid Bennu and then brought them to Earth in 2023. The 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid is thought to have formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s existence.
An analysis of that collected asteroid material, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, indicates that the samples included thousands of organic compounds and 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to form proteins. The samples also contained four “nucleobases” — the main components of DNA and RNA, which store and transmit genetic blueprints within our cells.
The researchers did not find evidence of life itself on Bennu; rather, their results bolster the theory that asteroids that crashed into Earth when it was young may have delivered the necessary ingredients for life to take hold. The findings could also mean that the chances life formed on other planets and moons in the solar system could be higher than scientists previously thought.
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