The chemical building blocks of life have been found in the grainy dust of an asteroid called Bennu, an analysis reveals. Samples of the space rock, which were scooped up by a Nasa spacecraft and brought to Earth, contain a rich array of minerals and thousands of organic compounds, including amino acids, which are the molecules that make up proteins, as well as nucleobases – the fundamental components of DNA. This doesn’t mean there was ever life on Bennu, but it supports the theory that asteroids delivered these vital ingredients to Earth when they crashed into our planet billions of years ago. Scientists think those same compounds could also have been brought to other worlds in our Solar System.
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