Bennu asteroid
Carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission (sample return September 2023). A 2025 Nature Astronomy paper reported 14 protein-forming amino acids in returned Bennu samples, providing direct evidence for prebiotic-amino-acid delivery via asteroid delivery (src-mars-organics-fresh-clues-2026-04).
Astrobiology relevance
Together with the murchison-meteorite (1969 Australian carbonaceous chondrite) and the ryugu sample-return campaign, Bennu strengthens the case that prebiotic organic inventories on early Earth — and on early Mars — were augmented by exogenous delivery from carbonaceous bodies. amy-williams frames this as the “in-situ + exogenous” combination hypothesis for the origin of life.