Rock and dust samples from the Bennu asteroid contain molecules that are the "key to life" on Earth, NASA officials announced on Wednesday.
NASA scientist Jason Dworkin holds up a vial that contains part of the sample from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission in 2023. Photo by James Tralie/NASA Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The samples were gathered by NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx, NASA officials said in a press release. Advertisement The samples collected from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft show those ingredients include several molecules and saltwater that created a kind of "broth" in which the molecules and other compounds could interact and combine to create new lifeforms on Earth and in its solar system. "NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission already is rewriting the…