Scientists previously identified amino acids, the essential components of life, inside 4.6-billion-year-old rocks collected from the asteroid Bennu. These samples were brought back to Earth in 2023 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. While the discovery confirmed that life’s basic ingredients exist beyond Earth, how those molecules formed in space remained unclear. New research led by scientists at Penn State now suggests these amino acids may have emerged in extremely cold, radiation-rich conditions during the earliest days of the solar system.
The findings, published today (February 9) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that several amino acids found in Bennu did not form through the processes scientists had long assumed. Instead, they appear to have developed under harsh environmental conditions unlike those previously associated with amino acid formation.
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