Ancient Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life, NASA Confirms

[Social Media]

 

For the first time, scientists have discovered the fundamental ingredients for life on a distant asteroid, according to NASA. A detailed analysis of debris collected from Bennu, an asteroid nearly 5 billion years old, suggests that the essential components for life on Earth existed in the early solar system. These findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, mark a significant breakthrough in understanding how life may have originated.

 

In 2023, we brought a sample of an asteroid called Bennu to Earth, part of a plan to study remnants of our early solar system. These grains of rock have shown that the building blocks of life and the conditions for making them existed on Bennu's parent body 4.5 billion years ago.

In 2023, we brought a sample of an asteroid called Bennu to Earth, part of a plan to study remnants of our early solar system. These grains of rock have shown that the building blocks of life and the conditions for making them existed on Bennu's parent body 4.5 billion years ago. pic.twitter.com/zdnwUGGx6u

— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) January 29, 2025

 

Until now, these crucial life-building elements had never been detected on extraterrestrial rock samples. “We now know from Bennu that the raw ingredients of life were combining in really interesting and complex ways on Bennu’s parent body,” said Tim McCoy, co-lead author of the study and curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life.”

 

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft harvested the sample from Bennu in 2020 and returned it to Earth in 2023. Upon examination, researchers found that the asteroid fragments contained all five nucleobases—the essential “letters” that make up DNA and RNA—as well as 11 unique mineral compounds, which had not been identified in any previous studies of space rocks.

 

Analysis of the samples showed that evaporated water had created a briny, primordial “broth” on Bennu’s parent body. This environment allowed the elemental precursors of life to interact and form increasingly complex structures. These residual brine deposits are reminiscent of the salt crusts found in dried-up lakebeds on Earth, but Bennu’s chemical signatures date back 4.6 billion years—predating its formation by around 100 million years.

 

“These grains of rock have shown that the building blocks of life and the conditions for making them existed on Bennu’s parent body 4.5 billion years ago,” NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center stated on X (formerly Twitter). This discovery suggests that the fundamental ingredients for life could have been widespread throughout the galaxy, raising the possibility that planets and moons far from the Sun may have had similar conditions.

 

“NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission already is rewriting the textbook on what we understand about the beginnings of our solar system,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu’s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth.”

 

Bennu may not be the only cosmic body to contain these key components of life. Scientists believe that other celestial objects, such as the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, may also harbor similar briny deposits. Notably, sodium carbonate—an important chemical compound linked to prebiotic chemistry—has already been found on Enceladus.

 

Meanwhile, researchers in the UK recently confirmed the presence of a “super-Earth” located 20 light-years away in a habitable zone, meaning it is at the right distance from its central star to potentially sustain liquid water.

 

While Bennu’s sample provides compelling evidence of life’s fundamental ingredients, scientists have yet to determine whether this asteroid’s chemical interactions could have progressed into more advanced organic structures, similar to the evolution of life on Earth. “We now know we have the basic building blocks to move along this pathway towards life, but we don’t know how far along that pathway this environment could allow things to progress,” McCoy stated.

 

The discovery of life’s essential ingredients on Bennu offers a new perspective on how the origins of life may not have been exclusive to Earth. It also deepens the ongoing search for life beyond our planet, strengthening the case for further exploration of asteroids and distant worlds that may hold similar secrets.

 

Based on a report by NYP 2025-01-31

 

 

[Bkk Brian]

Dam! so God never made Adam and Eve!! That bible thingy is a con

[Purdey]

Worth investigating its parent planet for people. Then our military can go there and claim it. Maybe wipe out the native people too. Isn't that what we do?