Bennu Asteroid Reveals Life's Building Blocks

New research shows amino acids in asteroid samples likely formed in harsh conditions of early solar system

Published on Feb. 10, 2026

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Amino acids, the building blocks necessary for life, were previously found in samples of 4.6-billion-year-old rocks from the asteroid Bennu, delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. New research led by Penn State scientists shows these amino acids, including the simplest one, glycine, likely formed in the harsh, icy-cold and radioactive environment of the early solar system, rather than in warm liquid water as previously thought.

Why it matters

The discovery that amino acids can form in diverse conditions, not just in the presence of warm liquid water, expands our understanding of how the building blocks of life may have originated in the early solar system and been delivered to Earth. This could provide new insights into the origins of life on our planet.

The details

The researchers used custom instruments to analyze isotopes, or slight variations in the mass of atoms, in the Bennu samples. They found the glycine in Bennu had a different isotopic pattern than glycine found in the famous Murchison meteorite, suggesting the two formed in chemically distinct regions of the solar system. The team believes Bennu's glycine likely formed in frozen ice exposed to radiation, rather than in the warm liquid water conditions that produced the Murchison amino acids.

  • The OSIRIS-REx mission delivered samples from the asteroid Bennu to Earth in 2023.
  • The new research findings were published on February 9, 2026 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The players

Allison Baczynski

Assistant research professor of geosciences at Penn State and co-lead author on the paper.

Ophélie McIntosh

Postdoctoral researcher in Penn State's Department of Geosciences and co-lead author on the paper.

Bennu

A 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid from which samples were delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

Murchison meteorite

A carbon-rich meteorite that landed in Australia in 1969, which has been extensively studied for its amino acid content.

OSIRIS-REx mission

A NASA mission that collected samples from the asteroid Bennu and delivered them to Earth in 2023.

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What they’re saying

“Our results flip the script on how we have typically thought amino acids formed in asteroids. It now looks like there are many conditions where these building blocks of life can form, not just when there's warm liquid water.”

— Allison Baczynski, Assistant research professor of geosciences at Penn State (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

“One of the reasons why amino acids are so important is because we think that they played a big role in how life started on Earth. What's a real surprise is that the amino acids in Bennu show a much different isotopic pattern than those in Murchison, and these results suggest that Bennu and Murchison's parent bodies likely originated in chemically distinct regions of the solar system.”

— Ophélie McIntosh, Postdoctoral researcher in Penn State's Department of Geosciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

What’s next

The research team plans to continue analyzing a range of different meteorites to look at their amino acids and determine if they continue to show the same diversity in formation conditions and pathways as seen in the Bennu and Murchison samples.

The takeaway

This discovery expands our understanding of how the building blocks of life can form, suggesting they may have originated in a variety of harsh conditions across the early solar system, not just in the presence of warm liquid water. This could provide new insights into the origins of life on Earth.