Produced by: Manoj Kumar
A capsule containing 122 grams of asteroid Bennu’s dust and rock was dropped over Utah in 2023 after OSIRIS-REx’s two-year return journey, preserving its ancient secrets.
The sample was snatched in mere seconds using a touch-and-go maneuver, ensuring pristine preservation for scientists worldwide to study its unaltered composition.
Geoscientists at Goethe University Frankfurt, including Dr. Sheri Singerling and Prof. Frank Brenker, examined microscopic Bennu grains using advanced electron microscopy, revealing hidden mineral structures.
Trace element tomography confirmed the presence of evaporites—minerals formed from evaporating brine—suggesting Bennu’s parent body once had liquid water before its destruction.
Researchers detected amino acid precursors in Bennu’s dust, proving its parent body harbored some of the essential building blocks for biomolecules and possibly primitive organic chemistry.
Bennu’s parent body shattered early in its history, halting chemical processes that might have developed further—its remnants now frozen in time for 4.5 billion years.
Similar celestial bodies, like Enceladus and Ceres, have evolved since Bennu’s breakup, likely retaining subsurface oceans that may still sustain microbial life.
With evidence of past liquid water, Bennu strengthens the case for targeting ice-covered moons and dwarf planets in future missions seeking extraterrestrial life.
The findings, published in Nature, hint at a broader cosmic recipe for habitability, pushing astronomers to rethink where and how life could emerge beyond Earth.