Rock and dust samples from the Bennu asteroid contain molecules that are the "key to life" on Earth, NASA officials announced on Wednesday.

Despite a recent request from Trump, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were already scheduled to return to Earth on a Crew Dragon capsule this spring

There are 20 amino acids that create the proteins required for life on our planet — and scientists have now found exactly 14 of them on an asteroid millions of miles away. The asteroid in question, named Bennu, was the focus of a very dreamy NASA mission called OSIRIS-REx that launched in 2016.

Last year, 2024, was the warmest year on record for the planet, easily breaking the previous record set just a year earlier.

NASA affirmed on Wednesday a plan it set last year to work with Elon Musk's SpaceX in returning two astronauts from the International Space Station, saying it will do so "as soon as practical," the day after President Donald Trump suggested he wants a quicker return for the crew.

Scientists from NASA and other institutions who have been analyzing the Bennu asteroid sample that returned to Earth last September found molecules, including amino acids, which are essential ingredients of life as we know it.

A NASA spacecraft has returned asteroid samples that hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world.

NASA scientists found amino acids, key minerals, and nucleobases for DNA in samples from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission. It's a win for alien life.

Molecules friendly to life have been found in samples of the asteroid Bennu, which NASA collected with a robotic probe five years ago.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded in space for eight months, conducted their first spacewalk.

A newly discovered asteroid has a tiny chance of smacking Earth in 2032, space agency officials said Wednesday.