Samples from the Bennu asteroid, brought to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, have been found to contain key building blocks of life, including amino acids and nucleobases 🧬 👀

According to Nature Astronomy, 14 of the 20 amino acids essential for life on Earth, along with all five nucleobases that store genetic information in DNA and RNA, have been discovered in the Bennu samples!! 🤯 Additionally, high amounts of ammonia and formaldehyde, crucial for biological processes, were also detected 💣

Scientists find the building blocks of life in asteroid Bennu sample! 

NASA’s #OSIRISREx mission is researching if these minerals and molecules could be key to explaining how life's ingredients come together. 

Read more about the findings here --&gt; https://t.co/wVYS8OdxXc https://t.co/J0Ofz54FLk

NASA Marshall

Samples from the Bennu asteroid, brought to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, have been found to contain key building blocks of life, including amino acids and nucleobases 🧬 👀

According to Nature Astronomy, 14 of the 20 amino acids essential for life on Earth, along with all five nucleobases that store genetic information in DNA and RNA, have been discovered in the Bennu samples!! 🤯 Additionally, high amounts of ammonia and formaldehyde, crucial for biological processes, were also detected 💣

https://x.com/nasa_marshall/status/1884706160181199092?s=46

In this video frame, Jason Dworkin holds up a vial that contains part of the sample from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission in 2023. Dworkin is the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Credit: NASA/James Tralie