Scientists analyze samples NASA brought back from an asteroid got a surprising detection that may be the room rock was once part of a bygone era Ocean world.
What the team found was water-soluble magnesium-sodium phosphate in mottled rocks – a mineral no one expected, as it didn’t show up in the data the spacecraft collected while at the asteroid. Am now. Phosphate compounds are key to all known life and form the backbone of DNA.
The new findings of the studypublished in Meteoritics and planetary scienceare an integral part of the “impostor asteroid,” so called because it guides scientists every step of the way OSIRIS-Rex mission.
“The presence and abundance of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid,” said lead researcher Dante Lauretta in a statement.
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This Bennu particle, about a millimeter wide, reveals a bright phosphate crust under a microscope.
Credit: Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024) Meteoritics and planetary science
NASA’s $800 million OSIRIS-Rex mission, shortly before Origin, spectral interpretation, resource identification and security Regolith Explorer, launched in 2016. The robotic spacecraft completed its 4 billion-mile journey when it dropped the capsule from 63,000 miles above Earth onto a patch of Utah desert last year. It is the first American mission from which a sample has been collected an asteroidThese are the most important space memorabilia NASA has acquired since the Apollo moon rockscollected between 1969 and 1972.
NASA selected Bennu for the mission because it a very small chance of hitting Earth in the coming centuries. Learning about the asteroid can be useful future attempts to trace it.
But the team also chose Bennu because it’s packed with carbon, meaning it could hold the chemical origins of life. Some mineral fragments could be older than the 4.5 billion year old solar system. These stardust grains could come from there dying stars or supernovae which ultimately led to the formation of the sun and planets.
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NASA has made samples collected from the asteroid Bennu during the OSIRIS-REx mission available to scientists around the world for study.
Photo: NASA / Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold
All forms of life on Earth have specific chemicals in their composition, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists know that asteroids contain molecules that are believed to be precursors to these chemicals. That’s why many suspected space rocks were responsible for bringing them to the planet via collisions in ancient cosmic history. By studying the samples from Bennu, they hope to gain more insight into how these ingredients could have developed.
“What I want to know is how you go from a simple carbon molecule, like methane, a natural gas, to something like amino acids, which make up our proteins, or nucleic acid, which makes up our genetic material,” Lauretta said last year.
His dream discovery would be proof that amino acids begin to link together via chemical bonds, forming a chain called a peptide that signals the evolution of proteins.
Bennu is shaped like a drop, made of gravel and boulders barely held together by its own microgravity.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona
The mission managed to reach approx half a cup of broken stones and dirtSo far, researchers have not been disappointed with their results.
The sample is rich in nitrogen and carbon, essential ingredients for life. The team’s early analysis found clay minerals in particular serpentineThis is similar to the type of rocks found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth, where geologists think the recipe for life on our planet may have originated.
The magnesium sodium phosphate in the Bennu sample resembles sodium phosphates on Enceladus. This moon of Saturn is shrouded in a saltwater ocean under ice and is known to shoot enormous geysers into space. Similar phosphate-enriched fluids are found in Earth’s soda lakes, such as Last Chance and Goodenough in Canada.
The OSIRIS-Rex sample return capsule after it landed on Earth.
Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
In the new OSIRIS-Rex paper, scientists suggest a “possible link” between Bennu and Enceladusbut this idea would require more research to prove it. The investigation into the monster is just beginning.
“These findings highlight the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu,” Lauretta said, “especially low-density material that would normally burn up (if it entered Earth’s atmosphere).