NASA revealed on Wednesday that the "the building blocks of life on Earth" may have been found in an asteroid sample collected from space.

The preliminary analysis of the contents of the OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission was unveiled at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and streamed online.

"The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during the announcement.

"Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come -- science like we’ve never seen before," he said.

In this handout provided by NASA, the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, on September 24, 2023 at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway, Utah. NASA via Getty Images

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