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, ...

When NASA launched a spacecraft to an asteroid, scientists patiently waited for their chance to look at bits of the space ...

Scientists have finally had a close look at the rubble collected by a spacecraft from the asteroid Bennu. Here's what they found inside and what it could tell us about the origin of life on Earth.

All forms of Earth life have specific chemicals in their makeup, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists have known that ...

Scientists from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission ... blocks” that would allow life to develop. Of the 20 amino acids in proteins made by life on Earth to form proteins, 14 ...

The origins of life on our planet remains one of science’s great mysteries. Now, a NASA mission that brought a piece of an ...

The building blocks for life, including salts, organic matter and amino acids have been found in samples returned to Earth from outer space.

Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to research that provides some of the best evidence to date that such ...

The rocks and dust safely delivered by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023 contain 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to make proteins, according to the first in-depth study of ...

"It was likely a key chemical building block through the formation of amino acids and nucleobases and, again, the genetic components of DNA and RNA." Perhaps Fox summed it up best: "The OSIRIS REx ...

The OSIRIS-REx mission returned to the sample to Earth in September of 2023, and these studies show that it contains amino acids, nucleobases, and minerals known as evaporites—all elements of life’s ...