The findings were reported in two journal articles on Wednesday. One, in the journal Nature Astronomy, found that the samples contained a diverse mixture of organic compounds.

The rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu hold amino acids, ammonia and other molecules essential to life on Earth, ...

Bennu coalesced from the debris as a rubble pile that found itself in Earth’s vicinity. The sample from Bennu was parachuted back to Earth in 2023 and shared among teams of researchers. Now two new ...

The findings could also mean that the chances life formed on other planets and moons in the solar system could be higher than scientists previously thought. The asteroid Bennu seen from the OSIRIS ...

These findings suggest that the conditions necessary for the emergence of life were likely widespread across the early solar system. The OSIRIS-REx team discovered that Bennu contains many ...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned samples from asteroid Bennu, which showed discoveries about life and the early solar system. These findings can now provide information into the potential ...

He said Bennu is "a rubble-pile asteroid, relatively small, about 500 meters across, but it came from an ancestral asteroid of rock and ice that broke apart a billion or two years ago — early in ...

2.9K. 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.

A sample from asteroid Bennu contains organic compounds usually found at midocean ridges on Earth, ... A study detailing the findings appeared Wednesday in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

NASA’s first asteroid sample is the most pristine sample of its kind. Now, back on Earth, the sample from asteroid Bennu has already delivered surprising findings about the early solar system ...

By traveling to Bennu, NASA researchers reasoned, a probe could gather pristine material. The OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at the 1,850-foot-wide asteroid in 2020, scooped up rock and dirt, and then ...

The findings were reported in two journal articles on Wednesday. One, in the journal Nature Astronomy, found that the samples contained a diverse mixture of organic compounds.