Found: The Building Blocks of Life on Asteroid Bennu | In Vivo With Dr. Scott Sandford | Ep. 18

Asteroids like Bennu might hold the secrets to life’s origins on Earth and beyond. Now, thanks to a daring NASA mission, we’ve got a pristine sample that could rewrite our cosmic story.In this episode of In Vivo, I sit down with Dr. Scott Sandford, a NASA astrophysicist and OSIRIS-REx team member, to discuss:• How Bennu’s amino acids and nucleobases hint at a universe primed for life• Why OSIRIS-REx’s 121-gram haul is a game-changer for astrobiology• What these findings reveal about life elsewhere in the universe• How this asteroid’s chemistry could shape humanity’s future in spaceJoin me for a vital conversation on asteroid science, life’s building blocks, and our place in the cosmos.- Check out Dr. Sandford’s NASA profile: https://www.nasa.gov/people/scott-sandford/- The OSIRIS-REx mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/osiris-rex/- The two recent papers which found amino acids and nucleobases on Bennu, as well as the evaporite sequence paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02472-9 and https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11779627/- The NASA Goddard Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@NASAGoddard- Credit: Astrum on Youtube: https://youtu.be/-A8X5oLdrCA?si=hvSjtm75l9f9M7-PIn Vivo on X - https://x.com/InVivoPodOnXIn Vivo on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GBvPPvSx52O6ILuam4LoX?si=6c903566ae7b4761&nd=1&dlsi=254f9f5e78194002In Vivo on Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-vivo/id1775578563In Vivo on Amazon Podcasts - https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/1ac4dbec-df46-4d1f-b0a1-742e9656ef44/in-vivo#osirisrex #asteroidbennu #panspermia #aminoacids #Nucleobases #SignsOfLife #lifeorigins #nasa #ScottSandford #astrobiology #SampleReturn #CosmicChemistry #ExtraterrestrialLife #spaceexploration #organiccompounds