NASA confirms asteroid samples contain ingredients for life as we know it

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When NASA announced it had collected samples from asteroid Bennu, a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid, the recovered samples were much more than anticipated, approximately double the total planned weight.

The quantity of the samples actually proved to be a problem for researchers as NASA struggled to get the capsule open for nearly three months, eventually resulting in special tools being designed to remove the lid of the capsule. NASA set a mission goal of 60 grams to call the asteroid sample collection mission a success, but OSIRIS-REx gathered more than 120 grams. Those samples have now been analyzed by a large team of scientists from more than 40 institutions around the world, with the researchers publishing a new study in the scientific journal Nature.

The study examined the contents of the samples, and through analysis of the mineral grains' exact structure, along with a chemical composition analysis, the team discovered 14 of the 20 amino acids that create the proteins required for life as we know it on Earth. Additionally, the team found a high concentration of ammonia, and five nucleobases life on Earth uses to transmit genetic instructions within DNA and RNA.

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"Their findings do not show evidence of life itself, but they do suggest that the conditions necessary for the emergence of life were likely widespread across the early solar system," Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, told reporters during a Jan. 29 press conference. "This, of course, increases the odds that life could have formed on other planets."

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"This is a future area of study for astrobiologists from around the world to ponder," said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx's project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "Looking at Bennu as an example of a place that had all the stuff, but didn't make life - why was Earth special?"