Benu asteroids are believed to be made of fragments of rubble from a 4.5 billion body of parents, which contained materials that originated outside Saturn, which has long been destroyed in a collision with another object. In two new sheets, scientists report the discovery of amino acids (including 14 of 20 used in terrestrial biology), multi -ring aromatic hydrocarbons, ammonia and other compounds, as well as a variety of salts, including sodium carbonate, phosphates, sulfate, sulfate, sulfate ,, Chlorid, in Bennu samples, which was delivered by NASA from NASA to Earth in 2023.
This mosaic image of the Bennu asteroid consists of 12 photos collected on December 2, 2018 by Osiris-Rex tool of 15 miles (24 km). Credit image: NASA / NASA / Arizona University Center.
“The mission of Osiris-Rex from NASA is already writing the textbook on what we understand about the beginnings of our solar system,” said Dr. Nikki Fox, Assistant Director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters.
“Asteroids provide a time capsule in the history of our home planet, and Bennu samples are a pivotal understanding of the components in our solar system before life begins on Earth.”
In Bennu samples, researchers Find Amine acids – 14 of the twentieth that life uses on Earth to make proteins – and all the five nucleus that life uses on Earth to store and transfer genetic instructions in the most complex biological molecules, such as DNA and RNA, including how amino acids arrange to proteins.
They also discovered an exceptionally high abundance of ammonia, which is important for biology because it can interact with formaldehyde, which was also discovered in samples, to form complex particles, such as amino acids – given the right conditions.
When amino acids are associated with long chains, they make proteins, which continue to run almost every biological function.
These basic building blocks of life were found in Bennu samples before in the rocks outside the ground.
However, identifying it in a primitive sample collected in space supports the idea that the things that were formed away from the sun can be an important source of raw bickens of life throughout the solar system.
“The evidence we are looking for is very small and easily destroyed or changed from exposure to the Earth’s environment,” said Dr. Danny Ghnin, a great scientist at the Juddard Space Center in NASA.
“For this reason, some of these new discoveries will not be possible without the task of returning the sample, accurate control control measures, and storing this valuable article of Bennu.”
A view from the outside from the Osiris-ReX mosque. A sample of material from the asteroid Bennu can be seen on the middle right. Credit Image: NASA / Erika Bluminfeld / Joseph Apberold.
Scholars It was identified Effects of 11 salt minerals in Bennu samples that are formed as water containing dissolved salts that evaporate over long periods of time, leaving the salts solid crystals.
A similar saline has been discovered or suggested through the solar system, including on the dwarf planet Cres and Saturn’s Moon Encelandus.
“The discovery of these salts was a penetration in space research,” said Dr. Nick Timmes, a researcher at Curtin University.
“We were surprised to identify the mineral halit, which is sodium chloride – exactly the same salt that you might put on your chips.”
“The minerals we have found as a form of evaporation of local floors – such as salt deposits that are formed in the salt lakes that we have in Australia and around the world.”
“By comparing the sequence of minerals from salt lakes on the ground, we can start to imagine what was the case on the mother body of the Bennu asteroid, which provides an insight into ancient cosmic activity.”
“Osiris-Rix was a very successful task,” said Dr. Jasson Dior, the scientist of the Osrice Rex project, a researcher at the Godard Space Center in NASA.
“Osiris -re data adds main brush to a picture of a solar system teeming with the possibility of life.”
“Why do we see yet, just life on Earth and not elsewhere, this is the really confused question.”
The results appear in two papers in the magazine Nature astronomy And the magazine nature.
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Dp Glavin And others. Ammonia and nitrogen -rich organic materials in the asteroid samples (101955) Pino. Nat AstronIt was published on the Internet on January 29, 2025; DOI: 10.1038/S41550-024-02472-9
TJ MCCOY And others. 2025. Evaporation sequence from an old saline solution registered in Bennu samples. nature 637, 1072-1077; DOI: 10.1038/S41586-024-08495-6