NASA Finds Ingredients of Life in Fragments of Lost World

The origin of life is one of the deepest mysteries in science, but the clues to solving it have been buried by plate tectonics, the water cycle, and even life itself. For answers, scientists are looking beyond Earth to primitive asteroids like Bennu, the target of NASA’s daring OSIRIS-REx sample return mission. OSIRIS-REx gathered pristine material from Bennu in 2020 and delivered it to Earth in 2023. Now, rocks from Bennu are revealing a lost world from the dawn of the solar system, with the right conditions to foster the building blocks of life.