Asteroid Bennu's Samples Reveal Key Ingredients for Life

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NASA's study of samples collected from the asteroid Bennu has unveiled the "basic building blocks" for life, suggesting that its parent body once contained liquid water. The 120 grams of pristine material, retrieved by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2020 and returned to Earth in 2023, showed high-carbon content and minerals not previously identified in extraterrestrial samples. "We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life," stated Tim McCoy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The findings indicate that evaporated water left behind a "briny broth” rich in salts and minerals on Bennu's parent asteroid, which dates back 4.5 billion years. Researchers believe these conditions may also exist in other celestial bodies like Ceres and Enceladus. Yasuhito Sekine, a professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo, described the discovery as providing "unprecedented insight" into the Solar System's formation. While the results progress understanding of life's potential origins, McCoy cautioned that the exact pathway towards life remains unclear.

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