Sugars, 'Gum,' Stardust Found in NASA's Asteroid Bennu Samples (opens in new tab)

Furukawa, Y., Sunami, S., Takano, Y. et al. Bio-essential sugars in samples from asteroid Bennu. Nat. Geosci. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01838-6

Sandford, S.A., Gainsforth, Z., Nuevo, M. et al. Nitrogen- and oxygen-rich organic material indicative of polymerization in pre-aqueous cryochemistry on Bennu’s parent body. Nat Astron (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02694-5

Nguyen, A.N., Seifert, L.B., Shimizu, K. et al. Abundant supernova dust and heterogeneous aqueous alteration revealed by stardust in two lithologies of asteroid Bennu. Nat Astron (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02688-3

So asteroids are chewed up bits of chewing gum? I have questions….