NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to return samples of Asteroid Bennu to Earth. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ...

When researchers finally cracked open the canisters from asteroid Bennu, they were not just sifting through dust. They were staring at a chemical time capsule packed with sugars, amino acids, salt ...

New experiments suggest RNA, life’s essential molecule, could have formed naturally on early Earth and even arrived from space, raising intriguing questions about how easily life might begin elsewhere ...

3I/ATLAS has passed its closest point to Earth, meaning we will soon lose sight of it for good. Some scientists want to send a spacecraft to chase down the alien comet — or the next interstellar ...

Nearly two years after launch, the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission caught its first glimpse of the asteroid Bennu on Aug. 17, from 1.4 million miles away. The asteroid appeared as a speck ...

Ingredients essential to kick-start life have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Bennu. NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission was led by researchers at the University of Arizona and Arizona ...

Samples retrieved from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023 have yielded a surprising treasure trove, revealing not just the building blocks of life, but also a mysterious ...

NASA's $800 million OSIRIS-Rex mission brought home about a half-cup of crushed rocks and dirt from asteroid Bennu in 2023. Credit: NASA Goddard / University of Arizona illustration In one study, a ...

NASA's asteroid sample has revealed new chemical evidence that scientists say sharpens the picture of how the solar system formed and how the ingredients for life spread through space. Three studies ...

Scientists have found mysterious space gum vital to creating life in an asteroid sample. Sugars essential for biology have been discovered in a gum-like substance in fragments from the Bennu ...

All the essential ingredients to kick-start life as we know it have now been found in samples from the asteroid Bennu. This shows that asteroids could have delivered all the prerequisites for life to ...

Michelle Thompson, associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences in the College of Science, will present “A Time Machine to the Early Solar System: Analyzing Samples from Asteroid ...