Until scientists were able to perform a controlled sample with a spacecraft, coordinating and storing samples in nitrogen, we have not seen 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 wiping, electronic microscope, and x -rays, each of which allowed us to look at the rock on a non -possible scale on 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.
Timothy J. McCoy It is the geology of supervisory research in Smithsonian Foundation, and Sarah Russell He is a professor of planetary science in Natural History Museum.
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