Scientists Find Amino Acids, Salts and Other Compounds in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Scientists Find Amino Acids, Salts and Other Compounds in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

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Asteroid Bennu is believed to be made from debris pieces from a 4.5-billion-year-old moms and dad body, consisting of products that came from beyond Saturn, which was ruined long back in an accident with another item. In 2 brand-new documents, researchers report the detection of amino acids (consisting of 14 of the 20 utilized in terrestrial biology), polycyclic fragrant hydrocarbons, ammonia and other substances, along with a range of salts, consisting of salt carbonates, phosphates, sulfates, and chlorides, in the Bennu samples, which NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft provided to Earth in 2023.

This mosaic picture of asteroid Bennu is made up of 12 images gathered on December 2, 2018 by OSIRIS-REx’s PolyCam instrument from a series of 15 miles(24 km). Image credit: NASA/ NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ University of Arizona.

“NASA’s OSIRIS-REx objective currently is rewording the book on what we comprehend about the starts of our Solar System, “stated Dr. Nicky Fox, associate administrator for Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

“Asteroids offer a time pill into our home world’s history, and Bennu’s samples are critical in our understanding of what active ingredients in our Solar System existed before life began in the world.”

In the Bennu samples, the scientists discovered amino acids– 14 of the 20 that life in the world utilizes to make proteins– and all 5 nucleobases that life in the world utilizes to save and transfer hereditary guidelines in more complicated terrestrial biomolecules, such as DNA and RNA, consisting of how to organize amino acids into proteins.

They likewise spotted remarkably high abundances of ammonia, which is necessary to biology since it can respond with formaldehyde, which likewise was identified in the samples, to form complicated particles, such as amino acids– provided the best conditions.

When amino acids link into long chains, they make proteins, which go on to power almost every biological function.

These foundation for life spotted in the Bennu samples have actually been discovered before in extraterrestrial rocks.

Determining them in a beautiful sample gathered in area supports the concept that things that formed far from the Sun might have been an essential source of the raw precursor active ingredients for life throughout the Solar System.

“The ideas we’re looking for are so tiny and so quickly damaged or changed from direct exposure to Earth’s environment,” stated Dr. Danny Glavin, a senior sample researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight.

“That’s why a few of these brand-new discoveries would not be possible without a sample-return objective, careful contamination-control steps, and mindful curation and storage of this valuable product from Bennu.”

A view of the beyond the OSIRIS-REx sample collector. Test product from asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle. Image credit: NASA/ Erika Blumenfeld/ Joseph Aebersold.

The researchers determined traces of 11 salt minerals in the Bennu samples that form as water consisting of liquified salts vaporizes over extended periods of time, leaving the salts as strong crystals.

Comparable salt water have actually been found or recommended throughout the Solar System, consisting of at the dwarf world Ceres and Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

“The discovery of these salts was a development in area research study,” stated Dr. Nick Timms, a scientist at Curtin University.

“We were shocked to recognize the mineral halite, which is salt chloride– precisely the exact same salt that you may place on your chips.”

“The minerals we discovered kind from evaporation of salt water– a bit like salt deposits forming in the salt lakes that we have in Australia and around the globe.”

“By comparing to mineral series from salt lakes in the world, we can begin to imagine what it resembled on the moms and dad body of asteroid Bennu, offering insight into ancient cosmic water activity.”

“OSIRIS-REx has actually been an extremely effective objective,” stated OSIRIS-REx task researcher Dr. Jason Dworkin, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight.

“The OSIRIS-REx information include significant brushstrokes to an image of a planetary system brimming with the capacity for life.”

“Why we, up until now, just see life in the world and not in other places, that’s the genuinely alluring concern.”

The findings appear in 2 documents in the journal Nature Astronomy and the journal Nature

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D.P. Glavin et alPlentiful ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble raw material in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu. Nat Astronreleased online January 29, 2025; doi: 10.1038/ s41550-024-02472-9

T.J. McCoy et al2025. An evaporite series from ancient salt water taped in Bennu samples. Nature 637, 1072-1077; doi: 10.1038/ s41586-024-08495-6

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