Bennu Asteroid Sample Contains ‘Building Blocks of Life’
Dr. Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, described the discovery as a “scientific treasure.”
The last time we checked on the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) #OSIRISREx mission, the sample return capsule containing rock and dust collected in space from asteroid Bennu had finally landed on Earth for shipment to a temporary clean room in Utah.
NASA shared its long-awaited report on the samples collected from the asteroid, and the analysis showed the presence of the building blocks of life.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it’s an exciting discovery, with the initial analysis of the material showing abundant carbon.
“At nearly 5% carbon by weight, carbon being the central element of life, far exceeding our goals of 60 grams. This is the largest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth,” Nelson said. “First analysis shows samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated clay minerals, minerals and carbon.”
…Dr. Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator, described the discovery as a “scientific treasure.”
“To see this dream coming true today is beyond words for me,” Lauretta said.
He said under electron microscopes, fine details of the composition of the asteroid samples revealed water-bearing clay minerals with fibrous structure that have water locked inside their crystal surface.
“These molecules landed on earth billions of years ago to make life possible,” Dr. Lauretta said.
The head of the sample analysis team described the find as an ‘astrobiologist’s dream”.
Daniel Glavin, OSIRIS-REx sample analysis lead, echoed Nelson’s statements regarding the discovery of carbon and noted he spent countless hours investigating whether asteroids like Bennu brought pre-biotic chemicals to Earth that triggered life.
‘We picked the right asteroid, and not only that we brought back the right sample, said Glavin.
‘This stuff is an astrobiologists dream, I just can’t wait to get at it.’
The samples also support the recent theories about how Earth’s water came to be on this planet.
“The first analysis shows samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated clay minerals, and they contain carbon as both minerals and organic molecules,” Nelson said.
The team shared detailed images of the particles revealing the water-bearing clay minerals.
“That is how we think water got to Earth,” said Lauretta, who is also a University of Arizona Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences. “The reason that Earth is a habitable world, that we have oceans and lakes and rivers and rain, is because these clay minerals landed on Earth 4 billion years ago to 4 and a half billion years ago, making our world habitable. So we’re seeing the way that water got incorporated into the solid material.”
The analysis also revealed sulfide minerals, “a critical element for planetary evolution and biology,” iron oxide minerals called magnetite that react to magnetic fields, and other minerals that could be important for organic evolution, Lauretta said.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
NASA also found a cache of mail-in ballots preprinted with joe biden’s name. Postage from Bennu is kinda pricey, though.
OMG, the asteroid is made of stuff.
A sample from asteroid Bennu is found to contain building blocks of life.
That’t nothing. A DNA sample from a Hamas terrorist was found to contain building blocks of death.
Fantastic.
Carbonaceous Chondrite is the most common type of asteroid. I want to see these people create life from carbon and wet clay.
So, no amino acids, no nucleic acids/bases, the “building blocks” of life. Just hydrates and carbon. Pretty big leap of faith there.
Wait a second. this sounds like Genesis 2:7, they might be onto something.
So, a wet clayey rock once crashed into earth and a few billion years later here we are, along with a ___ load of water? Well, I’m convinced. No missing pieces here.
Reminds me of the South Park gnomes step 1- stealing underwear, step 2 ?? Step 3= profit
Nope. They’re going to have to sequester and bury that carbon. Can’t have any of that stuff on this planet. It might find some oxygen and then where would we be.
How big is this asteroid?
That’s a damn big carbon footprint.
Kill it before it spreads!
If only unborn children had the same material… then science would describe an abortion as snuffing out a “life” as opposed to a medical procedure.
I’m pretty sure my “flex fuel car” spit out one of these carbon-rich samples just a few years ago.
My cat spit one out just a few minutes ago.
Somewhat expected of a less dense asteroid, but a very interesting find. These materials would all be from second generation nova. And that makes them interesting indeed.
I guess my astrophysics is weak. Is the claim that hydrate clays are the source of water on our planet dependent on the claim that water could not have formed on our planet as our planet formed?
It seems a crazy jump to go from clay minerals with associated water and some carbon to “building blocks of life”.
The early Earth was molten rock and any water present boiled away.
Our Water was brought by comets and asteroids bombarding The early solar system as Jupiter moved outward to assume it’s present orbit.
This movement peturbed the orbits of comets and astroids sending some out of the solar system and some to the inner solar system.
Both Mars and Venus also benefited from this and had lakes and oceans on their surface early in their history.
So three rocky planets all had water on the surface early in their history, then two of them lost their magnetic fields and this led to the current conditions where both planets have lost their surface liquid water.
Thank you. I am roughly familiar with the water bombardment theory, but I have never run any of the calculations or anything of that sort. Where I lose the idea is the combination of two things.
1) The world is hot enough to boil water and the atmosphere is unable to retain it.
2) The super high velocity impact of large bodies delivers water, but the water stays.
Is the idea that the water in the clay hydrates was just enough harder to remove that it stayed as a hydrate and didn’t cook off until much later when the earth had cooled enough that the atmosphere could retain it? I guess I probably just need to read up on it.
You need to look at this in context of other discoveries. A puzzle is being assembled piece by piece.
We are $33T in debt and looking at rock samples in space. We are truly doomed.
Unfortunately, we no longer can be sure whether a scientist is engaged in “political science” or real science. Unless it is otherwise obvious, I assume that any gov’t related scientist is advocating the favoured political view.