Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life

What can a dwelling rock characterize us about lifestyles on Earth? NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a cautious come to the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in October of 2020 to catch ground samples. In September 2023, the robotic spaceship returned these samples to Earth. A fresh prognosis has proven, surprisingly, that the samples contained 14 out of the 20 known amino acids that are the well-known building blocks of lifestyles. The presence of the amino acids re-introduces a sizable predict: Could possibly maybe lifestyles like originated in dwelling? Nonetheless, the protein building blocks themselves held one other surprise — they contained an very just correct mixture of left-handed and gleaming-handed amino acids — in distinction to our Earth which finest has left-handed ones. This raises one other sizable predict: Why does lifestyles on Earth like finest left-handed amino acids? Look at on this is particular to proceed.