There are several planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets in our solar system, but only Earth is known to support life. Now, scientists have found the “basic building blocks” of life in the samples of the asteroid Bennu.
The asteroid Bennu contains a lot of organic molecules, including many essential building blocks of life, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. It suggests that the chemistry that produced the asteroid may be occurring today on the ice moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
Remember when we brought pristine asteroid samples back to Earth? The first big science is in!
The samples suggest that the early solar system had widespread conditions and ingredients for life. Here’s how we know: pic.twitter.com/pwsDAXtY2J
— NASA (@NASA) January 29, 2025
“Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu’s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The examined space rock was collected by a NASA spacecraft and transported to Earth in 2023. Scientists have discovered nitrogen, minerals and thousands of organic compounds in the asteroid sample as of now.
These also include nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA, and amino acids, the chemicals that makeup proteins.
In addition to organic compounds, the analysis identified minerals and salts in the sample indicating that water may have once existed on Bennu. Additionally, the presence of ammonia-a key chemical for biological processes-supports the theory that asteroids could have delivered water and organic materials to early Earth, potentially facilitating the emergence of life.
While the findings do not prove that life ever existed on Bennu, they lend credence to the idea that asteroids brought these essential components to Earth when they collided with it billions of years ago.
“What we’ve learned from it is amazing. It’s telling us about our own origins, and it enables us to answer these really, really big questions about where life began. And who doesn’t want to know about how life started,” said Prof Sara Russell, a cosmic mineralogist from the Natural History Museum in London.
Scientists also think that these same molecules may have been transported to other planets in our Solar System.