Bennu: Nasa discovers 'incredible' findings on asteroid that could explain origins of life on Earth

Nasa has found some incredible findings from an astroid sample believed to Earth via a spacecraft, and they hope it can shed light on the origin of the solar system and of life on Earth.

The sample, which came from the asteroid Bennu and is made of ancient black dust and rocks, is the largest-ever return to Earth.

It was collected by Nasa's Osiris-Rex spacecraft three years ago but was finally dropped off in a sealed capsule during a flyby of Earth last month, and now scientists are investigating if it contains pre-biotic chemicals.

An Osiris-Rex sample analyst, Daniel Glavin, said during a news conference to reveal the material that the sample was "loaded with organics".

He said: "This is just incredible material. This stuff is an astrobiologist's dream, I just can't wait to get at it. We're going to learn so much about the origin of the solar system, the evolution and potentially how even life started here on Earth."

Dante Lauretta, Osiris-Rex principal investigator, said the different-sized stones in the sample would provide valuable information for scientists.

He said: "Something like that would not make it to the surface of the Earth as a meteorite. So to have something from space that we have never seen in our laboratories, there is nothing more exciting."

Bennu is considered as the most dangerous asteroid in the solar system - however, it has been calculated its chances of actually hitting Earth in 2182 are remote, at just one in 2,700, or 0.037%.

Lori Glaze, director of the agency's planetary science division said the mission could also help protect Earth from catastrophic impact with a space object by allowing Nasa to measure a small force created by the sun's heat and an asteroid's rotation - explaining this force was "really important for helping us to predict when a particular asteroid might be dangerous".

She said: "What we really want to know is if an asteroid is going to cross over Earth's orbit at the same time that we are in that place, and we want to not be in that place when an asteroid comes by."

Administrator Bill Nelson explained the discovery was unprecedented.

He said: "At nearly 5% carbon by weight, carbon being the central element of life, far exceeding our goal of 60g, this is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth."

Carbon and water molecules are "exactly the kind of material that we wanted to find", Mr Nelson added.

"They are going to help us determine the origin of elements that could have led to life."