Key to origins of life on Earth could be in 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid

A teaspoon-sized sample of a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid could be the key to revealing the origins of life on Earth.

The black dust-like specimen, taken from asteroid Bennu, is being examined by Natural History Museum (NHM) scientists.

It could help hold vital clues to the formation of the planets and our solar system, according to experts.

Professor Sara Russell, senior research lead at the NHM, said: “It also, we think, contains minerals like clays that trap loads of water, so it might contain loads of water and that could tell us how the Earth got to be a watery habitable planet.”