【#Tech24H】A research team from NASA and the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has, for the first time, detected trace amounts of tryptophan in pristine, uncontaminated samples from the asteroid Bennu. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that the human body cannot synthesize and must obtain from food. Prior to this discovery, it had never been found in any meteorite or space sample. The detection of tryptophan on Bennu is significant, providing crucial evidence for the hypothesis that the ingredients for life on Earth may have come from space.Bennu is a primitive asteroid formed 4.6 billion years ago, largely unchanged since the birth of the solar system. Previously, scientists had detected 33 amino acids in Bennu samples, 14 of which are used by life on Earth to build proteins.