Danny Glavin (@meteordannyg.bsky.social)

Bennu samples yield organic matter, amino acids and salts Open Access research published in Nature Astronomy and Nature analysed rock and dust samples brought back from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. In 2018, the OSIRIS-REx mission arrived at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to collect pristine samples, untouched by alterations induced by Earth's atmosphere, to be analysed on Earth. The findings offer new insights into the early Solar System's chemistry. Read the Nature Astronomy paper, where Daniel Glavin and colleagues conclude that Bennu has a much richer complexity in organic matter than terrestrial biology and suggest that its parent body may have come from the outer Solar System here: http://spklr.io/6053B6KnD Read the Nature paper where Timothy McCoy and colleagues found indicators for the potential past presence of water on Bennu. The findings raise questions about the potential for prebiotic organic synthesis, which requires further investigations. http://spklr.io/6056B6KnG http://spklr.io/63329B6KIF