Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday. The findings provide the ...

The brine can also be distinguished from brine samples on Earth, as it is much richer in phosphorus—an element abundant on asteroids but uncommon on Earth. The team’s findings shake up the ...

“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 ...

The first goal of OSIRIS-REx was to blast a spacecraft toward the grayish, lumpy object and get it really close to the surface so the probe could pluck up some space rock samples with a robotic arm.

and uracil—in the Bennu samples. The findings suggest either that the chemistry emerged de novo on both the asteroid and on Earth, or that other, similar asteroids may have brought us the raw ...

"Identifying the origin of these samples is therefore of key interest to identify an ancient asteroid that may be one of the earliest forming asteroids. [However,] resulting debris from their ...

Credit: NASA Here are today's general risks from asteroids or comets both tiny and very large. Importantly, even relatively small rocks can still be threatening, as the surprise 56-foot (17-meter ...

including some never before seen in asteroid samples. “This is all very exciting because it suggests that asteroids like Bennu once acted like giant chemical factories in space and could have ...

If this asteroid follows the pattern of other near-Earth asteroids after their discovery, the chances of impact will rise and then fall, according to the agency. For example, the asteroid Apophis ...

What is the 'alien' that has been found near the South Pole? NASA is keeping a close watch on three asteroids making near-Earth approaches today. One of them, named 2025 CF, will pass within just ...