NASA’s asteroid samples hold ingredients of life from watery world
   Date :31-Jan-2025


NASAs asteroid samples hold
 
CAPE CANAVERAL :
 
ASTEROID samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world. The findings provide the strongestevidenceyetthatasteroidsmayhave plantedthe seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with wateralmostrightfromthestart. “That’s the kind of environmentthatcouldhavebeenessential to the steps that lead from elements to life,” said the Smithsonian Institution’s Tim McCoy, one of the lead study authors.
 
NASA’sOsiris-Rexspacecraftreturned 122 grams of dust andpebblesfromthenear-Earth asteroid Bennu, delivering the sample canister to the Utah desert in 2023 before swooping off after another space rock. It remains thebiggest cosmichaul frombeyondtheMoon.The two previous asteroid sample missions by Japan yielded considerably less material. SmallamountsofBennu’spreciousblackgrains-leftoversfrom the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago - were doled out to the two separate research teams. But it was more than enough toteaseoutthesodium-richminerals and confirm the presence of amino acids, nitrogen in the formofammoniaandevenparts of the genetic code. Some if not all of the delicate salts found at Bennu - similarto what’s in the dry lakebeds of California’s Mojave Desert and Africa’s Sahara-would be strippedawayifpresentinfalling meteorites.
 
“This discovery was only possible by analysing samples that were collected directly from the asteroidthencarefullypreserved back on Earth,” the Institute of ScienceTokyo’sYasuhitoSekine, whowasnotinvolvedinthestudies,saidinanaccompanyingeditorial. Combining the ingredients of life with an environment of sodium-rich salt water, or brines,“that’s reallythepathway tolife,” saidMcCoy,theNational Museum of Natural History’s curator of meteorites. “These processes probably occurred much earlier and were much more widespread than we had thought before.” NASA’s Daniel Glavinsaidone of the biggest surprises was the relatively high abundance of nitrogen, including ammonia.
 
Whilealloftheorganicmolecules foundintheBennusampleshave been identified before in meteorites, Glavinsaid the ones from Bennu are valid - “real extraterrestrial organic material formed in space and not a result of contamination from Earth.” Bennu-arubblepile justonethird of amile(one-halfofa kilometre) across - was originally partofamuchlargerasteroidthat got clobbered by other space rocks. The latest results suggest this parent body had an extensive underground network of lakes or even oceans.