Samples from asteroid could be key to secrets of building blocks of life – Nasa

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said the sample will “help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come”

The Osiris-Rex mission landed on the asteroid Bennu and returned a sample to Earth (Nasa/PA)

Nasa said the “building blocks of life on Earth” could be present in a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid as the agency showed off samples collected from it in space.

The US space agency said on Wednesday that early tests of materials collected from the Bennu asteroid as part of the Osiris-Rex mission showed evidence of high-carbon content and water.