Total surprise: Asteroid Bennu reveals to be full of the “building blocks” of life

Scientists from NASA and other institutions who examined samples from the asteroid Bennu, which returned to Earth in September 2023 as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, have discovered key “building blocks” of life – amino acids. The sample also contained evidence of an ancient environment that may have favored the origin of the chemical processes necessary for the origin of life. 

Scientist Jason Dworkin holds a vial that contains samples from the asteroid Bennu, brought to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Dworkin is a mission project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Photo credit: NASA

Published in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy, the findings do not prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, but they confirm that conditions favorable for its origin were common in the early Solar System. This supports the theory that life can also appear on other planets and moons.

A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) with the cover removed, showing samples of asteroid Bennu inside. Photo: NASA

NASA’s analysis showed that Bennu’s sample contains 14 of the 20 amino acids used in protein synthesis on Earth, as well as five nucleic bases needed to form DNA and RNA. The researchers also found significant amounts of ammonia and formaldehyde, compounds that can react under the right conditions to form complex organic molecules.

Experts from the Smithsonian Institution and London’s Natural History Museum found that the sample contains 11 types of minerals, including calcite, halite and sylvinite. This suggests the presence of liquid water on the larger 4.5 billion year old asteroid from which Bennu separated. Water may have played an important role in the interaction of chemical components, facilitating the formation of complex organic compounds.

Sample OREX-800044-101, which was analyzed by Japanese members of the OSIRIS-REx analysis team. Author: Yasuhiro Oba

The OSIRIS-REx mission launched on September 8, 2016, and on December 3, 2018, the spacecraft reached the asteroid Bennu. It explored the asteroid for nearly two years before taking a soil sample on October 20, 2020. The material was hermetically packed in a capsule and returned to Earth on September 24, 2023 for further analysis.

Earlier we reported on the interesting things about the asteroid Bennu.

According to NASA

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