CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Asteroid samples returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission have revealed key building blocks for life, including amino acids and essential nucleobases, which provide compelling evidence that such space rocks may have delivered the foundations of life to Earth billions of years ago. The findings, published in prominent scientific journals such as Nature and Nature Astronomy, show that the samples contain various organic compounds and minerals, suggesting a once watery environment that may have been conducive to the emergence of life. NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft successfully collected approximately 121.6 grams (about 4.3 ounces) of material from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in 2020, landing the samples in a capsule in the Utah desert in September 2023. Researchers have since been unraveling the chemical composition of the ancient grains, which were formed from the solar system's early years around 4.5 billion years ago. According to CBS News, the analysis demonstrates the variety of organic molecules found in the samples, including all five nucleobases that constitute DNA and RNA: adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil. Dr. Daniel P. Glavin, senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, emphasized the importance of these findings, stating, “This suggests that asteroids like Bennu once acted like giant chemical factories in space.” The samples were preserved in pristine conditions, allowing scientists to confidently assert that these compounds are extraterrestrial in origin, rather than contamination from Earth environments. The presence of ammonium-rich minerals and sodium carbonates indicates that Bennu's parent body likely harbored a brine-like environment, similar to ancient lakes on Earth. "These processes possibly occurred much earlier and were much more widespread than we had thought before," noted Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution, as quoted by Reuters. Various studies, including one published in Newsweek, highlight that the discovery of organic compounds can broaden the understanding of how life might have emerged on Earth and can potentially exist elsewhere in the universe. Importantly, while Bennu itself shows no signs of life, it raises questions about life's precursors and the environments capable of fostering biological processes. The ongoing efforts to analyze the returned samples could provide further insights into the history of life on Earth and the potential for finding life on other planets. As research continues, scientists stress the importance of future missions targeting other celestial bodies, including missions to Mars and icy moons like Enceladus and Europa, which are believed to host conditions favorable for life. "Are we alone?" McCoy simply stated, summarizing the profound implications these asteroid samples hold for understanding life's origins across the cosmos.