Samples of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, brought back to Earth by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft, contain the ingredients needed for life, as well as remnants of an ancient world.
Samples of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, brought back to Earth by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft, contain the ingredients needed for life, as well as remnants of an ancient world.
In 2023, a spacecraft delivered the largest-ever sample of cosmic debris (122 grams or 4 ounces) to the Utah desert. Researchers say the data suggests life on Earth could have originated from an asteroid that hit our planet. They also say the ingredients in the samples could be water, further supporting their possible role in the origin of life, The Independent reports .
«Such an environment could have been important for the steps leading from elements to life,» said Tim McCoy of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the lead authors of the study.
The samples from Bennu have been distributed to two separate research teams, and they have already published their studies in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy. Sixty other laboratories around the world are analyzing Bennu fragments as part of initial studies, said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, the mission’s principal investigator who participated in both studies.
Initially, scientists found sodium-rich minerals and confirmed the presence of amino acids, nitrogen in the form of ammonia, and even parts of the genetic code. Some, if not all, of the delicate salts found on Bennu — similar to those found at the bottom of former lakes left behind in California’s Mojave Desert and the Sahara Desert in Africa — would be removed if they were present in falling meteorites.
«This discovery was only possible through the analysis of samples that were collected directly from the asteroid and then carefully preserved on Earth,» said Yasuhito Sekine of the Tokyo Institute of Science, who was not involved in the research.
McCoy noted that the combination of the ingredients of life with a sodium-rich environment, salt water or brines, could be evidence of a «pathway to life.» «These processes probably occurred much earlier and were much more widespread than we previously thought,» he added.
According to NASA’s Daniel Glavin, one of the biggest surprises was the relatively high nitrogen content, including ammonia. While all of the organic molecules found in the Bennu samples have been identified previously in meteorites, Glavin said the Bennu molecules are real — «genuine extraterrestrial organic material formed in space, not the result of contamination from Earth.»
