Within the Bennu sample, the science team identified 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to build proteins. They also found all five nucleobases, the ring-shaped molecules that form DNA ...

Meanwhile, the Bennu samples revealed comet particles and 20 different types of amino acids. The OSIRIS-REx sample, the largest ever returned to Earth (in September 2023), contained organic ...

Amino acids can be 'left-handed' or 'right-handed' depending on the arrangement of their chemical structures, but life on Earth has only left-handed amino acids in common.

Life on Earth relies on molecular building blocks to make DNA and proteins. Scientists have long wondered how prevalent these precursors were at the birth of our solar system. A sample of dust and ...

The 120 g of material came from the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu, which OSIRIS-REx visited in 2020. The findings “bolster the hypothesis that asteroids like Bennu could have delivered the raw ...

The second study, published in Nature Astronomy, found something even more profound. The Bennu samples contain 14 of the 20 amino acids that are essential for life on Earth to build proteins.

Use precise geolocation data and actively scan device characteristics for identification. This is done to store and access ...

In September 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off a special delivery that scientists had been anticipating for nearly 3 years. Secured inside that delivery was over 120 grams of material ...

Unlocking the Mystery of Life’s Left-Handed Bias For all the answers the Bennu sample has provided, several questions remain. Many amino acids can be created in two mirror-image versions, like a pair ...

Scientists from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission recently delivered remarkable findings about asteroid 101955 Bennu after the mission returned its samples to Earth in 2023. While ...

This spacecraft rendezvoused with asteroid (101955) Bennu on December 3rd, 2018, returning 121.6 grams of material (the largest sample ever) to Earth by September 2023.

In addition to the 14 biological amino acids, the samples from Bennu also contained 19 more non-biological amino acids, as well as the five nucleobases that make up RNA and DNA.