NASA's asteroid samples may reveal how life began on Earth
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission just made a significant discovery: samples from the asteroid Bennu contain ribose, glucose, amino acids, and nucleobases—the same components that make up our RNA and DNA.
This hints that some of life's building blocks might have hitched a ride to Earth from space.
There's also a surprising amount of ancient dust from supernovas in the mix, offering a peek into what was floating around before our solar system even existed.
Teamwork led to big discoveries on Bennu
This breakthrough comes from a team-up between NASA and Japanese scientists who've studied other asteroids before.
Together, they found large sugar molecules on Bennu that back up the 'RNA world' theory about how life started.
Plus, they spotted unique nitrogen-rich polymers never seen in other space rocks and found more presolar grains than usual—helping us piece together how early Earth got its start.