Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

A bright fiery ball crossed the sky over the mountains, ice rivers and fir forests near the city of Revilstock, British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteoriteDiscover by the beaver boxes, fell over the lake. They saved them a layer of ice from the depths and allowed scientists a peek at the birth of the solar system.

Nearly 60 years, NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission returned from space with a sample of the asteroid called Bennu, similar to those that rained the rocks over Revelstock. Our search team Spread a chemical analysis Among those samples, providing an insight into how some ingredients reach life for the first time on Earth.

He was born in the years in the fall Smithsonian Institute In Washington, DC, and Natural History Museum In London. We dreamed of studying samples from a coil -like as the Roverstock as a co -collected by a spacecraft.

Then, nearly two decades ago, we started turning these dreams into a reality. We join Osiris-Rex mission in NASA The team, which aims to send a spacecraft to collect and return a sample from the asteroid to the ground. After the arrival of these samples on September 24, 2023, we reached a story from rock, ice and water that hints to how life is formed on Earth.

Ci Chondrites and Steroid Bennu

To learn about Asteroid – A rock or metal object in orbit around the sun – We started studying Meteorites.

Asteroids like Bennu are rock or mineral organisms in orbit around the sun. Mepss are parts of asteroids and other outer objects outside the planet that survive fiery diving on the surface of the Earth.

We really wanted to study a asteroid similar to a set of Meteork is called ChondritesThe components were formed in a cloud of gas and dust at the dawn of the solar system billions of years ago.

Revelstock Nizak in a group called Ci chondrites. The laboratory structures restricted by Chondrites CI mainly, minus hydrogen and helium, to the composition of the elements that the load carries from the inside of the sun and its measurement in the outer layer of the sun. Since its components have formed billions of years, they are similar to time capsules that have not changed chemically for the early solar system.

Therefore, geologists use the chemical structures of Ci Chondrites as Ultimate The reference standard For geological chemistry. They can compare the books of everything from other rocks to the Earth’s rocks. Any differences from the composition of the Ci Chondrite have occurred through the same processes that formed koyika and planets.

Ci Chondrites is rich in mud and form when Ice In the old asteroid, change the rock. They are also rich Organic molecules before piotics. Some of these types of molecules are lifelong building blocks.

This combination of rocks, water and membership is one of the reasons Choose Osiris-Rex sample The organic rich asteroid can be found, where water and organic compounds necessary for the origin of life can be found.

Evaporator – an old saline solution

Since the samples of Banu Return On September 24, 2023, we and our colleagues spent four continents in their studies.

Tools on Osoris Rex spacecraft made notes From the reflected light that detected the most abundant metal and organic materials when it was near the asteroid Peno. our Laboratory analyzes I found that the structures of these samples line up with these notes.

Samples are mostly of water -rich clay, with sulfide, carbonate and iron oxide. These are the same minerals in Ci Chondrites as Revelstock. However, he surprised the discovery of rare minerals inside Bennu samples. Despite our contracts from our experience in studying meteorites, we have not seen much of these minerals.

We found Sodium dominated mineralsIncluding carbonate, sulfate, chloride and fluorids, as well as potassium chloride and magnesium phosphate. These minerals are not formed only when water and rocks interact. It is formed when the water evaporates.

We haven’t seen most of these sodium -rich minerals in meteorites, but they sometimes exist in Dried lake family on EarthHe loves Lake Sielis in California.

Banu rocks were formed 4.5 billion years ago The asteroid of the biggest father. This asteroid was wet and muddy. Under the surface, the water pockets were perhaps a few feet just evaporated, leaving the metals that we found in the sample. The same evaporation process also formed the old lake family that we saw these minerals on the ground.

It is possible that the Bennu asteroid Bennu is likely to disintegrate from one billion to one billion years, and has collected some fragments to form the rubble pile that we know as Bennu.

These minerals are also found on the ice bodies in the external solar system. Bright deposits on Dwarf SerisThe largest body in the asteroid belt, contains sodium carbonate. Cassini mission measured the same minerals in the columns Saturn Moon Encladus.

We have also learned that these minerals, which were formed when the water evaporates, disappears when exposed to water again – even with a small amount of water in the air. After studying some Bennu samples and their minerals, the researchers stored samples in the air. This is what we do with meteorites.

Unfortunately, we lost these minerals as a jet in the air on the ground that caused them to be resolved. But this explains why we cannot find these minerals in meteorites that were on the ground for centuries.

Fortunately, most samples were Store and transferred in nitrogenIt is protected from the effects of water in the air.

Until scientists were able to perform a controlled sample with a spacecraft, coordinating and storing samples in nitrogen, we did not see this group of minerals in a meteor.

An unexpected discovery

Before returning samples, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft spent more than two years making notes on Bennu. Two years ago, the researchers learned that the asteroid’s surface is covered with rock rocks.

We can see that the asteroid is rich in carbon carbon and water, and we saw Veins From white carbonate a few feet deposited by old liquid water. But what we could not see from these notes was rare minerals.

We used Set of technologies To go through the sample that was returned one small pill at one time. These CT scans included a CT scan, electronic microscope, X -rays, each allowing us to look at the rock on an unable to the asteroid.

Cooking ingredients for life

From the salts we have identified, we can conclude the composition of the twisted water from which it was formed and see how it changed over time, and they became more rich in sodium.

This twisted water was the perfect place for the new chemical reactions that occur Organic molecules To form.

While our team distinguishes salts, our organic chemical colleagues were busy in identifying the carbon -based molecules in Bennu. They found unexpectedly High levels of ammoniaBasic brick from Amino acids Proteins are formed in the living matter. They also found all the five nucleus formed part of it DNA and RNA.

Based on these results, we were ventured by guessing that these vulgar pods of fluid were the perfect environments for increasingly complex organic molecules to form, such as species that make up life on Earth.

When asteroids like Bennu hit the little ground, they could have served a Full package Of complex molecules and the basic components of life, such as water, phosphate and ammonia. Together, these ingredients could have initially made arid landscapes to produce a habitat world.

Without this premature shelling, perhaps when the Riverstock meteorite pieces fell after several billion years, these shrapnel from outer space had not reached a landscape with ice flowers and trees.

This article has been republished from ConversationAn independent, non -profit news organization brings you facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Timothy J. McCoyand Smithsonian Institute and Sarah Russelland Natural History Museum

Read more:

Timothy J. McCoy receives funding from NASA.

Sarah Russell receives funding from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).