Recent studies of samples from the asteroid Bennu reveal they contain essential amino acids and were once in a brine environment that could have facilitated prebiotic chemistry. These findings indicate that the components of life may have existed abundantly in the solar system for approximately 4.5 billion years. The analysis followed NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which collected these samples and returned them to Earth, highlighting significant insights into the early solar system's chemistry and the conditions that may have led to life on Earth.
The analysis of the Bennu samples is the scientific payoff for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which in 2016 launched a probe to the asteroid on a multiyear journey.
"I think it shows that the early steps toward the path to life were occurring much more widely and much earlier than we had thought before," said Tim McCoy.
Collection
[
|
...
]