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Life's 'basic building blocks' found in asteroid samples

PARIS, France —Pristine samples of the asteroid Bennu transported to Earth contain the "basic building blocks" for life, shedding new light on the perennial question of how life began on our planet.

The revelation, in two studies published Wednesday, is the result of work on just 120 grams of material — about the weight of a banana — collected from Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2020.

The samples from Bennu, then around 300 million kilometers (186 million miles) from Earth, were returned in a capsule that OSIRIS-REx dropped off during a pass-by in 2023.

Initial analysis had already revealed evidence of high-carbon content and water.

But the new research found that evaporated water on Bennu's parent asteroid left behind "the raw ingredients of life," said Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and co-lead author of one of the studies.

"We have discovered that next step on a pathway to life," he said in a press release issued by the museum.

Bennu appears to have formed around 65 million years ago from the debris of a parent asteroid dating back some 4.5 billion years.

The findings suggest Bennu's parent was once home to pockets of liquid water. When these evaporated, they left behind a "briny broth" of salts and minerals.

Some of the minerals include compounds that have never been seen in samples from outer space, the museum said.

And analysis of the samples strongly suggests a "non-terrestrial origin," adds one of the studies.

That could lend support to the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space.

The samples "give unprecedented insight into the processes that drove the formation of the Solar System," according to Yasuhito Sekine, a professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo.

"This discovery was only possible by analyzing samples that were collected directly from the asteroid then carefully preserved back on Earth," he added.

"The salts would otherwise have rapidly absorbed moisture in the Earth's humid atmosphere."

The researchers believe similar salty brines may exist on other extraterrestrial bodies, including the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn's moon Enceladus, as well as other

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