A tiny sample of black dust, retrieved by a NASA spacecraft using a robotic arm, has been found to contain a rich array of minerals and organic compounds. These include amino acids – the molecules and nucleobases which form a fundamental component of DNA.
The dust was collected in 2023 from a 500m-wide asteroid called Bennu. British scientists were given a teaspoonful of the dust, and their findings have been published in Nature and Nature Astronomy.
BBC News has more.