A big question in the origin of life on Earth is why it is based solely on "left-handed" amino acids. Studies on asteroid Bennu's chemical building blocks deepens the mystery. When NASA launched a ...

Asteroids, small airless bodies within the inner solar system, are theorized to have contributed water and chemical building ...

(Nanowerk News) Rock and dust samples brought back from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu contain organic matter, including amino acids and all five DNA and RNA bases, as well as salts that formed early ...

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’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission has detected amino acids in the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London.View full profile Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum ...

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 ...

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, ...

Scientists detected all five nucleobases -- building blocks of DNA and RNA -- in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. Japanese collaborators detected all five nucleobases ...

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 ...