The 120 g of material came from the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu ... Nucleobases have also been identified in the Bennu sample, but although chains of nucleobases are the molecular skeleton of RNA ...

the researchers also detected all five fundamental nucleobases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil—crucial components of DNA and RNA. Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the ...

In 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission reached asteroid 101955 Bennu. Two years later, the spacecraft snagged a sample of its surface, which has since been returned to Earth. Now, astronomers are ...

as well as all five nucleobases that life on Earth uses to store and transmit genetic instructions in DNA and RNA. “Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu ...

Dust and rocks from Bennu contained all five nucleobases—molecules that make up DNA and RNA—and 14 of the 20 amino acids in proteins. These organic molecules had been found in other asteroids. But ...

Although the chances of impact are slim, Bennu is still one of the most potentially hazardous known asteroids in our solar system, and we need to be prepared for what could come. A first-of-its ...

Bennu’s potential collision with Earth is a remote but unsettling possibility, according to a new study. Bennu is about 500 metres wide—taller than the Empire State Building and as wide as ...

If the near-Earth asteroid Bennu were to collide with Earth in the future, the space rock could cause substantial global damage, even though it’s a fraction of the size of the asteroid that ...

Bennu was visited and sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and data from it is revolutionizing our understanding of the early solar system – but what would happen if this medium-sized asteroid were to ...

NASA's watchful eye on the skies has recently spotted asteroid Bennu, a celestial body with a slim chance of impacting Earth. According to a study published in Science Advances, Bennu's odds of ...