Scientists have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in the samples collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu.

Asteroid the size of a 20-story building headed for Earth in 2032, astronomers warn - The 60-metre object has ‘one of the highest probabilities of an impact from a significantly sized rock ever’, says

When asteroids like Bennu hit the young Earth, they could have provided a complete package of complex molecules and the ingredients essential to life, such as water, phosphate and ammonia. Together, these components could have seeded Earth’s initially barren landscape to produce a habitable world.

Samples of Bennu were brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023. Now, a pair of newly published papers reveal that the samples contain precursors to life that formed in a watery environment—a watery environment very similar to the one that prevailed on Earth before life emerged up to four billion years ago.

A NASA spacecraft has returned asteroid samples that hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world.

An asteroid, called 2024 YR4, has a one in 83 chance of hitting earth within the next decade, according to astronomers.

Two new studies show a briny, carbon-rich environment on the parent body of the Bennu asteroid was suitable for assembling the building blocks of life.

Two new papers describe hints to a brine-filled environment on the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock and the presence of amino acids, offering clues to how early Earth got its ingredients for life

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

A relatively small object in space, roughly the size of the Statue of Liberty, is expected to zip past Earth on January 31. The object, named 2015 DJ155, is one of several objects that will near our planet in the next several days.

BS4 may be anywhere between 17 and 40 feet across, and will approach at about twice the distance between the Earth and moon.