A sample from asteroid Bennu contains organic compounds usually found at midocean ridges on Earth, suggesting Bennu may have been part of an ancient ocean world.
An early analysis of a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu suggests that the space rock had an unexpectedly water-rich past — and it may have even splintered off from an ancient ocean world. The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission scooped up the 4.3-ounce pristine sample from the near-Earth asteroid in 2020 and returned it to Earth last September.
A similar phosphate was found in a sample from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 mission and returned to Earth in December 2020. But the compound from the Bennu sample is purer and has larger grains.
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