Building blocks of life found in samples from asteroid Bennu
Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to research that provides some of the best evidence to date that such space rocks may have seeded early Earth with the raw ingredients that fostered the emergence of living organisms. Present in the samples were 14 of the 20 organic compounds called amino acids that are used to make proteins - complex molecules that play indispensable roles in the structure, function and regulation of living organisms. Present also were all five nucleobases - the genetic components of DNA and RNA in all life on Earth. The Bennu samples were obtained directly from an asteroid and were kept pristine. These were delivered to Earth in 2023 by parachute inside a capsule released by the US space agency's robotic OSIRIS-REx, which collected the samples in 2020, that landed in the Utah desert.
NASA TV / REUTERS
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