Carbon and Water Found in NASA's Bennu Asteroid Sample

In September 2016, NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on a mission to study the asteroid Bennu, a potentially hazardous celestial body. After spending over two years investigating and collecting samples from Bennu, the spacecraft recently returned to Earth. Initial analysis of the samples has revealed promising results, with the presence of water and significant amounts of carbon suggesting the potential existence of life's building blocks on asteroid Bennu. This finding aligns with the longstanding hypothesis that asteroids and comets could have delivered essential materials for life's development on Earth in the distant past. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized the significance of the largest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever brought to Earth, which "will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come."