https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/30/asteroid_bennu_life/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02472-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08495-6

Scientists analyzing samples from asteroid Bennu have found something remarkable: Despite being a cold, lifeless rubble pile that formed around 65 million years ago, it holds a rich inventory of organic molecules - key ingredients for life. Returned to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in late 2023 - and sealed inside its capsule until NASA worked out how to safely open it - the first two scientific papers detailing the makeup of organic matter (Nature Astronomy) and hydrated salts (Nature) harvested from the surface of Bennu were published Wednesday. While no signs of life were found, the results provide valuable insights into the chemistry of the early solar system. The Nature Astronomy paper reports that Bennu contains 14 of the 20 amino acids essential for life on Earth, along with all five nucleobases that form DNA and RNA. The samples also included ammonia and formaldehyde, which can combine to form complex molecules like the amino acids found in the sample, indicating multiple stages of development being present. Along with those compounds, around 10,000 nitrogen-bearing chemicals were found in the Bennu samples. Like amino acids and nucleobases, nitrogen-bearing compounds play a critical role in life. All those organic compounds need a proper environment to develop in, and Bennu shows evidence of containing that, too. The Nature paper found evidence of evaporated brine minerals, suggesting that Bennu's parent body - a larger proto-planet or asteroid - once contained liquid water and compounds critical to life, including sodium-bearing phosphates and carbonates, as well as sulfates, chlorides, and fluorides. ... In other words, Bennu's samples provide further evidence that life's building blocks formed early in the solar system and could have been transported to Mars, other planets, moons, or asteroids capable of supporting prebiotic chemistry. It was reported this week there's strong evidence of liquid water, not just frozen ice, on the Red Planet. Not only does Bennu's makeup suggest life's building blocks formed early, but it also suggests they may be more common throughout the solar system than previously thought. ...

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