NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission brought back samples from asteroid Bennu, revealing the presence of amino acids and nucleobases, key ingredients for life. These findings suggest that asteroids may have delivered the essential building blocks for life on early Earth.
Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to new research. The samples, collected in 2020, provide some of the best evidence to date that such space rocks may have seeded early Earth with the raw ingredients that fostered the emergence of living organisms.
The US space agency's robotic OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2020 collected the samples from the near-Earth asteroid, a rocky remnant of a larger celestial body that had formed near the dawn of the solar system roughly 4.5 billion years ago. The samples — 122 grams of dust and pebbles — were delivered to Earth in 2023 by parachute inside a capsule released by OSIRIS-REx that landed in the Utah desert. NASA excited by asteroid composition NASA's first studies on the fragments of the asteroid Bennu are in and they are cause for hope that the samples may contain clues to the foundations of life on Earth. The findings revealed that the samples contained minerals formed when brine — salty water — evaporated on Bennu's parent body, the type of wet environment where prebiotic organic chemistry may have brewed. Present in the samples were 14 of the 20 organic compounds called amino acids that are used to make proteins - complex molecules that play indispensable roles in the structure, function and regulation of living organisms. All five nucleobases — the genetic components of DNA and RNA in all life on Earth — were also present. The Bennu organic compounds have all been identified previously in small chunks of asteroids known as meteorites that have landed on Earth. But there have been lingering questions because these meteorites could have been contaminated by terrestrial sources. 'We can trust these results,' said Dr. Glavin. 'The detection of these key building blocks of life in the Bennu samples supports the theory that asteroids and their fragments seeded the early Earth with the raw ingredients that led to the emergence of life,' said astrobiologist Dr. Danny Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, lead author of one of the studies. 'In addition, the fact that these chemical building blocks of life can be formed in space and are widespread throughout the solar system increases the chances that life could have started beyond Earth,' Dr. Glavin added. Organic compounds have one or more carbon atoms that are bound to other elements, usually hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. All life on Earth is based on carbon and is built from organic compounds including the amino acids used to create proteins and nucleobases. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid) are biomolecular cousins that are fundamental molecules in cell biology. DNA contains an organism's genetic code. RNA carries genetic information it receives from the DNA, putting this information into practice. 'All biology is comprised of organic compounds. The origin of life is related to organic chemistry, some of which is preserved in these rocks from 4.5 billion years ago,' said astrobiologist and study co-author Dr. Jason Dworkin, the OSIRIS-REx project scientist. The discovery of organics isn't, however, evidence of life, but rather conditions conducive to kick-starting life in the early Solar System. 'The suite of simple protein amino acids and nucleobases that were found in Bennu are a long way from anything that could be considered 'living,' for example, a more complex self-sustaining chemical system that can replicate and evolve which is comprised of much larger polymers — proteins and nucleic acids — that are found in cells,' Dr. Glavin said. Bennu's icy parent body, perhaps about 100 kilometres in diameter, appears to have formed in the outer solar system and was later destroyed, possibly 1-2 billion years ago. It's a new year and that means new astronomy events to look out for. Here's what you can see from Australia in 2025. Early in its history, some of the ice inside the parent body apparently melted and formed a salty brine.The minerals were similar to ones found in other asteroids, but all 11 had never been detected in meteorites that landed on Earth. 'The brines provide an environment in which elements and simple organics could have combined to form more complex prebiotic organics on the pathway to life,' said geologist Dr. Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington and lead author of one of the studies
ASTEROID BENNU LIFE ORIGINS ORGANIC COMPOUNDS NASA OSIRIS-Rex AMINO ACIDS NUCLEOBASES
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