The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission has uncovered essential building blocks of life in pristine samples collected from asteroid Bennu. Included in the list are amino acids and nucleobases, essential components of DNA and RNA. This means that the fundamental ingredients for life could have been more widespread in the early solar system than previously imagined. Ammonia and formaldehyde were also detected indicating the existence of complex organic chemistry in space.
The scientists evaluating samples from Bennu found other evaporite minerals, indicating this asteroid had maintained water-rich conditions in the past. Such environmental conditions may lead to prebiotic chemistry—the process that sparked life. Those compounds found within Bennu mean that the more the scientists found these on its surface, it is further evident that asteroids like Bennu should have been some of the big players in depositing those recipes for life on Earth and could be doing for other planets also.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft also successfully retrieved material from the surface of Bennu in 2020 and returned it to Earth in 2023. Scientists have carefully analyzed those samples, as they have hardly changed since the time the solar system formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago. According to NASA, these rocks act as a time capsule, providing essential information about the chemical conditions that existed before life began on Earth.
The discovery cannot be taken to confirm the presence of extraterrestrial life but is certainly great evidence that suggests the conditions in which life had to originate might not have been unique to our planet but quite possibly common during the early phases of the solar system.
“NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is already rewriting our understanding of how life’s essential ingredients formed,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Asteroids like Bennu provide a window into the past, revealing what chemical components existed before life began on Earth.”
One of Earth’s most dynamic processes—the plate tectonics, erosion, and biological cycle—have eradicated much of the evidence that might otherwise tell where life came from; by studying ancient asteroids, like Bennu, researchers hope to unlock clues that have remained unchanged for billions of years.
NASA’s findings reinforce the idea that life’s building blocks could exist beyond Earth, raising new questions about the potential for life on other planets and moons. As analysis of Bennu’s samples continues, scientists anticipate even more groundbreaking discoveries that could reshape our understanding of life’s origins and the early history of the solar system.
