2025 February 12 *Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life* *Video Credit:* Data: NASA, SVS, U. Arizona, CSA, York U., MDA; Visualizer: Kel Elkins (lead, SVS); Text: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.) What can a space rock tell us about life on Earth? NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a careful approach to the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in October of 2020 to collect surface samples. In September 2023, the robotic spaceship returned these samples to Earth. A recent analysis has shown, surprisingly, that the samples contained 14 out of 20 known amino acids, the essential building blocks of life. The presence of the amino acids re-introduces a big question: Could life have originated in space? However, the protein building blocks themselves held another surprise -- they contained an even mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids -- in contrast to our Earth which only has left-handed ones. This raises another big question: Why does life on Earth have only left-handed amino acids? Research on this is sure to continue.