Scientists analyzing samples NASA brought back from an asteroid was detected by surprise, which could mean that space Rock used to be part of a ocean world.
What the team discovered was water-soluble magnesium sodium phosphate in mottled stones – a mineral that no one expected because it did not appear in any of the data collected by the spacecraft when it landed. found on the asteroid. BennuPhosphate compounds are essential to all known life, forming the backbone of DNA.
New the conclusions of the studyPublished in Meteorites and planetary sciencesare an integral part of the “deceptive asteroid”, so-called to confuse scientists at every stage of the OSIRIS-Rex assignment.
“The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid,” said principal investigator Dante Lauretta. in a report.
This Bennu particle, about a millimeter wide, reveals a shiny phosphate crust under a microscope.
Credit: Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024) Meteorology and planetary science
NASA’s $800 million OSIRIS-Rex mission, short for Origins, spectral interpretation, resource identification and security Regolith Explorer, launched in 2016. The robotic spacecraft completed its 4 billion mile journey when it dropped the capsule 63,000 miles above Earth on a patch of the Utah desert last year. This is the first American mission to take a sample of an asteroidThese are the most significant space memorabilia NASA has obtained since the Apollo Moon Rockscollected between 1969 and 1972.
NASA chose Bennu for the mission because he a very low chance of hitting the Earth in the centuries to come. Knowing more about the asteroid might be useful future efforts to reorient it.
But the team also chose Bennu because it is full of carbon, meaning it could contain the chemical origins of life. Some of its mineral fragments could be older than the solar system, which is 4.5 billion years old. These grains of stardust could come from dying stars Or supernovae which ultimately led to the formation of the sun and the planets.
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NASA has made samples from the asteroid Bennu collected during the OSIRIS-Rex mission available to scientists around the world for research purposes.
Credits: NASA / Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold
All life forms on Earth contain specific chemicals, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists know that asteroids contain molecules that are precursors to these chemicals. This is why many suspect that space rocks were responsible for arriving on the planet through collisions in ancient cosmic history. By studying Bennu’s samples, they hope to better understand how these ingredients may have evolved.
“What I want to know is how do we go from a simple carbon molecule, like methane, which is a natural gas, to something like amino acids, which make our proteins, or nucleic acid, which makes up our genetic material,” Lauretta said last year.
His dream discovery would be proof that amino acids begin to link together through chemical bonds to form a chain, known as a peptide, signaling the evolution of proteins.
Bennu is shaped like a droplet and is composed of gravel and rocks barely held together by their own microgravity.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona
The mission managed to bring home about half a cup of crushed rock and soil. So far, researchers have not been disappointed by their generosity.
The sample is rich in nitrogen and carbon, essential ingredients for life. The team’s first analyzes revealed the presence of numerous clay minerals, in particular serpentineThis type of rock is similar to the type of rocks found on Earth’s mid-ocean ridges, where geologists believe the recipe for life may have begun on our planet.
The magnesium sodium phosphate in Bennu’s sample resembles the sodium phosphates on Enceladus. This Saturn Moon is enveloped in an ocean of salt water beneath the ice and known for spewing enormous geysers into space. Similar phosphate-enriched fluids are found in Earth’s soda lakes, such as Last Chance and Goodenough in Canada.
The OSIRIS-Rex sample return capsule after landing on Earth.
Credit: NASA / Keegan Barber
In the new OSIRIS-Rex paper, scientists suggest a “possible link” between Bennu and Enceladusbut this idea would require further research to be proven. Research on the sample has only scratched the surface.
“These findings highlight the importance of collecting and studying materials from asteroids like Bennu,” Lauretta said, “especially low-density materials that would normally burn up (if they entered) Earth’s atmosphere. »
