Asteroid, Bennu and Earth

Asteroid may have planted 'building blocks of life' on Earth, groundbreaking new NASA study finds
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
The Bennu asteroid reveals clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded
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.
Scientists find life’s ‘building blocks’ in asteroid Bennu samples
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.
Building blocks of life identified in sample collected from asteroid Bennu
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.
An Asteroid Sample Just Changed What We Know About Life in Our Solar System
Two exciting new studies detail the life-supporting contents of a 4.3-ounce sample of the asteroid Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx mission returned to the sample to Earth in September of 2023, and these studies show that it contains amino acids,
NASA's returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
The 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.
Earth's Underworld Is Full of Life, And It Goes Deeper Than We Ever Knew
Life in these underworlds runs on a very different timeline to Earth's bustling surface. With no sunlight, energy is sparse ...
Life-bearing water arrived on Earth later rather than sooner, meteorite analysis suggests
A team led by a Rutgers-New Brunswick scientist has concluded water did not arrive as early during Earth's formation as ...
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"Super-Earth" found just 20 light-years away is our best chance so far to find alien life
HD 20794 d completes its orbit just shy of two Earth years, placing it well within reach of conditions that might harbor life ...
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BioSCape, co-led by UB, shows how life on Earth can be measured from space
BUFFALO, N.Y. — An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by the University at Buffalo has ...
Scientists discover nearby ‘super-Earth’ that could sustain life: ‘There is hope for the future’
UK researchers have confirmed the existence of a “super Earth” located 20 light-years away that could reveal the existence of ...
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Life-bearing water arrived on Earth later rather than sooner
Scientist have concluded water did not arrive as early during Earth's formation as previously thought, an insight that bears directly on the question of when life originated on the planet. The finding ...
How well could Earth life survive on exoplanets?
Astronomers have found some pretty wild exoplanets. Some are balls of lava the temperature of hell, one is partially made of ...
NASA scientists want to solve a mystery: Why did life "turn left?"
When NASA launched a spacecraft to an asteroid, scientists patiently waited for their chance to look at bits of the space ...