NASA revealed Wednesday that newly returned samples from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid contain traces of carbon and water — molecules that are thought to make up the building blocks of life. The findings could help scientists understand how the solar system formed and how life started on Earth. In a much-anticipated public event, the agency provided the first glimpse of the rocky samples, detailing how early studies have already yielded exciting results.
More research is needed to understand the samples from Bennu, but the preliminary results are promising because the space rock's water and carbon content may explain how water was originally delivered to Earth. As such, the asteroid may have played a key role in how life emerged on our planet, said Dante Lauretta, leader of the OSIRIS-REx mission and a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona.