A previous sample from 162173 Ryugu, a diamond-shaped asteroid, contained myriad organic compounds, including vitamin B3 and uracil, the additional nucleobase used in RNA. Like Ryugu, Bennu is a ...

Molecules friendly to life have been found in samples of the asteroid Bennu, which NASA collected with a robotic probe five years ago.

“Here we show that Bennu samples are volatile rich, with more carbon, nitrogen and ammonia than samples from asteroid Ryugu and most meteorites,” the scientists write. Importantly they also discovered ...

uracil and nicotinic acid were detected in the samples from asteroid Ryugu, but the other four nucleobases were absent. The difference in abundance and complexity of N-heterocycles between Bennu ...

There are 20 amino acids that create the proteins required for life on our planet — and scientists have now found exactly 14 of them on an asteroid millions of miles away. The asteroid in question, ...

uracil and nicotinic acid were detected in the samples from asteroid Ryugu, but the other four nucleobases were absent. The difference in abundance and complexity of N-heterocycles between Bennu ...

Rock and dust samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu contain organic matter and a variety of minerals crucial to the emergence of life ...

Bennu’s samples are especially useful because the asteroid is not tainted by Earth’s chemistry, similar to the samples collected from asteroid Ryugu during the Hayabusa2 mission. Bennu is ...

The building blocks for organic matter have been discovered on the asteroid Bennu, as deatiled in a new study in the journal Nature Astronomy. The research gives new insight into how life ...