Higher scientific journalist
The chemical construction blocks of life were found in the grain dust of an asteroid of Benn, reveals analysis.
Samples of space rocks, asking for a spacecraft and brought to the ground, contain a rich range of minerals and thousands of organic compounds.
They include amino acids, which are molecules that make up proteins, as well as nucleobase – basic components of DNA.
This does not mean that there has ever been a life on Bennu, but it supports the theory that the asteroids of that vital ingredients brought to the ground when they collapsed on our planet a billion years ago.
Scientists think that these same compounds could be brought to other worlds in our solar system.
“What we learned from him is amazing,” said Prof. Sara Russell, a cosmic mineral from the Museum of Natural History in London.
“It tells us about our own origin and it allows us to answer these really, really big questions about where life began. And who does not want to know how life started?”
The findings were published in two papers in Nature magazine.
Little Bennua was one of the most amazing missions that Nas ever tried.
The spacecraft called Osiris Rex revealed a robot hand to collect part of the space rock 500 m, before packing it in the capsule and returned it to Earth in 2023.
About 120 g of black dust was collected and divided with scientists around the world. That may not sound like a lot of material, but it turned out to be a treasure trove.
“Every grain tells us something new about Benna,” said Profa Russell, who studies small stains.
She was sent to scientists in the UK.
New research has shown that the space rock is full of nitrogen and carbon compounds.
They include 14 of the 20 amino acids that use life on Earth to build protein and all four ring -shaped molecules that make up DNA – adenin, Gvanin, cytosin and thymine.
The study also discovered a number of minerals and salt, suggesting that the water was once present on the asteroid. Ammonia was discovered in the sample, which is important for biochemical reactions.
Some of these compounds have been seen in space rocks that have fallen to the ground, but others have not been discovered so far.
“It is unbelievable how rich. There are a lot of these minerals that we have not seen before in the meteorites and the combination of them we have not seen. It was so exciting to study,” said Profa Russell.
This latest study adds increasing evidence that asteroids brought water and organic material to the ground.
“Early solar system was truly rumored and there were millions of asteroids like Bennu who fly,” explained Dr. Ashley King of the Museum of Natural History.
The idea is that these bombed young land, sat down our planet with the ingredients that allowed us oceans and enabled us to live.
But Earth is not the only world hit with space rocks. Asteroids would collide with other planets.
“The country is unique in that this is the only place we have found in our lives so far, but we know that asteroids have delivered these ingredients, carbon and water, in the entire solar system,” said Dr. King.
“And one of the big things we now try to understand is, if you have the right conditions, why have we have life here on earth – and can we potentially find it elsewhere in our solar system?”
This is a key question that scientists will continue to try and answer.
They have decades of research in front of dust returning from Bennu, and parts of our cosmic neighborhood are still exploring.
