Small important reminder point. The solar system was born with the sun 4.6 billion years ago, it is now made up of eight planets (Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and at least two asteroid belts. One is between Mars and Jupiter and the other behind the orbit of Neptune. And Bennu in all of this? It is a geocroiser asteroid that is in the first belt and NASA seems to have discovered its particularly distant origins in terms of distance and time.
It was thanks to samples taken directly from the asteroid in 2020 by the mission of NASA Osiris-Rex that the researchers were able to reach their conclusion. And one thing is certain, Bennu has a very special and rather complex story.
Remember, we presented the first asteroid belt to you, that between Mars and Jupiter. Well, this is where Bennu would have been formed. Following a collision, a larger asteroid would have been destroyed and then form Bennu from different fragments of his celestial parent body.
Until then, nothing very surprising since asteroids often result from collisions between two celestial bodies. But the analyzes of Bennu's samples revealed that his parent body was very surprising.
“” “We have found grains of star dust whose composition is prior to the solar system, organic materials that have probably formed in interstellar space and high temperature minerals that have formed as close as possible to the sun“Explained Ann Nguyen, planetary scientist and co -author of the studies published on August 22, 2025.
The ASC details the fact that Bennu's parent body would have formed in a region much further from the sun, behind Jupiter's orbit, “From materials from our solar system and even interstellar particles.»
Bennu and the origin of life
This is not the first time that Bennu has made headlines with space agencies and observatories this year. And yes, the asteroid about 500 meters in diameter has already panicked the media sphere specialized or not at the beginning of the year 2025 when we discovered there … elements necessary for the development of life and more precisely elements allowing to explain its origin.
Thus, in view of the samples taken from the surface of Bennu, it was possible to highlight nitrogen, carbon and organic compounds, salts in this case: phosphates, carbonates, sulfates, chlorides and fluorides. This therefore indicated the presence of brine on the surface of the parent body of Bennu, you know, the one who would have potential origins going far beyond our solar system.
These brides are “Aqueous environments with a high concentration in dissolved salts, offer conditions conducive to the emergence and development of life in the solar system”Explains the Côte-d'Azur observatory.
In fact, if life, as we know it, can no longer develop on the surface of Bennu or his parent body, he opens a new window to discover the origin of life on earth.
Source: ASC / NASA
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