Building blocks of life discovered in asteroid

Dust from a distant space rock could hold the secret to life on Earth.

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Scientists at the US space agency NASA have analysed samples from a distant asteroid (a lump of rock floating in space).

The scientists believe they have found evidence of water and the “building blocks of life” in a sample of dust and rock taken from an asteroid called Bennu. This helps to support a long-standing theory that the ingredients for Earth’s living things were first brought to our planet in space rocks.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched in September 2016 and reached Bennu in 2018. The mission was simple: travel to Bennu, use a robot grabber to gather some dust and rock from the asteroid, and then bring those samples back to Earth. OSIRIS-REx dropped off the samples on 24 September 2023 and scientists have been studying them ever since.