The sample, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu and returned to Earth in 2023, contains all five nucleobases — the "letters" that make up DNA and RNA — alongside ...

Jason Dworkin, a project scientist with OSIRIS-REx at Nasa, described the findings as adding "major brushstrokes" to the picture of a solar system full of potential for life. The agency said the ...

The OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team identified a variety of salts, including sodium carbonates, phosphates, sulfates, and chlorides. Associate Professor Nick Timms, an author of the Nature article ...

In October 2020, a van-sized robotic spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of Bennu, a 525-metre-wide asteroid 320 million kilometres from Earth.

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

Engaging articles, breathtaking images and expert knowledge Issues delivered straight to your door What would happen if Earth ...

FILE - OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule on ground. (NASA) What they're saying: "That's the kind of environment that could have been essential to the steps that lead from elements to life," said ...

D.C. These revelations could not have been made without the material brought back by OSIRIS-REx, said Danny Glavin, a senior sample scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt ...

Scientists have discovered the essential building blocks to life on a sample from a distant asteroid. The sample, which the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected from the asteroid Bennu and returned to ...

or OSIRIS-REx for short, traveled to the asteroid – about 200 million miles away from Earth. NASA said the spacecraft successfully collected a sample of rocks and dust from the asteroid’s ...