Asteroids, small airless bodies within the inner solar system, are theorized to have contributed water and chemical building blocks of life to Earth billions of years ago. Although meteorites on Earth ...

Japanese collaborators detected all five nucleobases — building blocks of DNA and RNA — in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Asteroids, small airless bodies within the ...

Pristine samples of asteroid Bennu have revealed something entirely unexpected — not only does the asteroid contain the chemical building blocks of life, but it also originated from an ancient, ...

This figure illustrates key molecules and minerals discovered in samples of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu, which were delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023. Bennu is a ...

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission found ingredients for DNA and RNA on the asteroid Bennu. The discovery shows asteroids could seed planets with the precursors for life. It's also more evidence that life ...

The "JWST spectroscopy of (142) Polana: Connection to NEAs (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu" paper is published in the Planetary Science Journal. "Very early in the formation of the solar system, we ...

The OSIRIS-REx mission collected a sample from the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 Bennu, revealing its "rubble pile" structure and composition, including potential biogenic components. Bennu is ...

A groundbreaking study recently published in the Planetary Science Journalhas raised the possibility that asteroids Bennu, Ryugu, and Polana may all be fragments of a common parent body. The paper, ...

NASA says an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building is heading toward Earth. But don't worry, it's not expected to arrive until the year 2182 and there's only a .05% chance it will hit our ...