NASAs asteroid sample reveals key chemistry that could lead to life

Scientists poring over a sample brought back from the asteroid Bennu have detected amino acids and complex mineral compounds, some of which have never been found in space rocks.A team at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History discovered a salty residue left over from an ancient brine. Through evaporation, it formed minerals rich in sodium, carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, and fluorine. Finding these ingredients shows that the conditions to make them existed earlier and m