Washington, D.C. – Scientists studying the sample of the Bennu asteroid that returned to Earth in September 2023, found amino acids and key molecules vital for life. The sample provides evidence of an ancient environment that could have triggered the chemistry leading to life in the early solar system, according to a NASA news release.
These results, published in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy, demonstrate that the conditions to make life arise were prevalent in the early Solar System. What this study does not affirm is alien life; it confirms theories that building blocks of life may have formed in space and, thus, could increase the chances of life on other planets and moons.
NASA scientists detected 14 of the 20 amino acids that are part of protein-building on Earth and five nucleobases, or building blocks, of DNA and RNA. It also contained ammonia and formaldehyde, which can combine in liquid water to produce amino acids and other organic compounds under the right conditions. The presence of such chemical precursors of life in this asteroid fragment implies that meteorites could have delivered these precursors to Earth long ago.
Further analysis of the sample revealed the presence of 11 various minerals, including calcite, halite, and sylvite, which were detected by researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the Natural History Museum in London. Their presence is an indication that Bennu is a fragment of a much bigger 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid that once had liquid water, offering a possible venue for early organic molecules to interact and evolve.
Launched on September 8, 2016, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx arrived at the asteroid Bennu on December 3, 2018. After its study of almost two years, the mission made a successful collection on October 20, 2020, and is returning the sample to Earth on September 24, 2023. The sample would be continuously analyzed by scientists in hopes of learning more about life and how it emerged and/or possibly traveled from early times.
These findings further establish that such asteroids may have played a critical role in the delivery of the chemical ingredients of life to Earth and, for all one knows, elsewhere. With much more analysis pending, the sample could yield even deeper secrets about the origins of life beyond Earth.
