"Data obtained from the spacecraft’s two spectrometers… reveal the presence of molecules that contain oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together, known as ‘hydroxyls,’" the release said on Monday. "The [NASA] team suspects that these hydroxyl groups exist globally across the asteroid in water-bearing clay minerals, meaning that at some point, Bennu’s rocky material interacted with water."
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OSIRIS-REx is presently orbiting Bennu, surveying possible landing sites where the spacecraft will attempt to pick up a sample and return to Earth in 2013, the release added.
The presence of water or water-like molecules is expected to provide clues on how the solar system was formed and the history of its planets, according to NASA.
