Cosmic Candy: Sweet Secrets from Asteroid Bennu

Asteroid Bennu has been sharing some sweet secrets. Scientists have found sugars and a mysterious "space gum" in samples brought back by NASA's Osiris-REx mission. These findings could help us understand how life began on Earth. The sugars found in the asteroid samples are important for life as we know it. They are like the building blocks that living things need to grow and function. But these sugars don't prove that life exists elsewhere. Instead, they show that the basic ingredients for life might have been common in our solar system a long time ago. The "space gum" is a new discovery. It's a substance that hasn't been seen in any other space rocks before. Scientists think it might have played a role in kickstarting life on Earth. It's like a clue from the very beginning of our solar system. The samples also contain dust from rocks that are older than our solar system. This dust can tell us about how our solar system formed and evolved. Scientists are still studying these samples. Each new finding brings us closer to understanding how life began and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe. The sugars and "space gum" found in the asteroid samples are exciting. But they also raise new questions. For example, how did these substances form? How did they contribute to the start of life on Earth? As scientists continue to study the samples from Bennu, they are piecing together a story that spans billions of years. It's a story about the origins of our solar system and the beginnings of life on Earth.