Scientists found 11 minerals in Bennu samples, including calcite, halite, and sylvite, that form when water with dissolved salts evaporates over time, leaving solid crystals. Similar brines have been detected on Ceres and Enceladus.

Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to research that provides some of the best evidence to date that such space rocks may have seeded early Earth with the raw ingredients that fostered the emergence of living organisms.

NASA scientists discovered a plethora of precursors to life on the asteroid Bennu, demonstrating the importance of Earthbound sample-return missions.

Rock and dust samples from the Bennu asteroid contain molecules that are the "key to life" on Earth, NASA officials announced on Wednesday.

Samples from asteroid Bennu have delivered insights into the origins of Earth’s water and the organic molecules that may have seeded life.

Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost right from the start.