Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six years.

The discovery stems from an unprecedented sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which landed a spacecraft on the asteroid in 2020, captured 4.3 ounces (121.6 grams) of rocks and dust, and safely returned the cache to Earth in 2023. NASA has since distributed a small portion of that sample to researchers around the world to be analyzed.

Studying Bennu is important because its composition reflects that of the early solar system, giving scientists a glimpse into the beginnings of life. Previous research on Bennu samples had already found 14 of the 20 amino acids all living or

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