This mineral-rich asteroid might have carried the seeds of life. Planetary scientists have discovered organic matter essential to life in dust and rock retrieved from an asteroid known as Bennu. The finding supports the theory that near-Earth asteroids,

Scientists studying samples that NASA collected from the asteroid Bennu found a wide assortment of organic molecules that shed light on how life arose.

Pristine samples from asteroid Bennu contain “basic building blocks” for life, offering new insights. The samples suggest Bennu’s parent asteroid had liquid water, leaving a “briny broth” of salts.