The surprise in NASA’s asteroid rocks hints that Bennu came from an ocean world

Scientists analyzing the samples NASA brought by an asteroid made a surprising discovery that may mean ROOM the rock was once part of a long past the oceanic world.

What the team found was water-soluble magnesium-sodium phosphate in the mottled rock—a mineral no one expected because it didn’t show up in any of the data the spacecraft collected while on the asteroid. Bennu. Phosphate compounds are key to all known life, forming the backbone of DNA.

New study findingspublished in Meteoritics and Planetary Scienceare an integral part of the “rogue asteroid”, nicknamed as such to confuse scientists at every turn OSIRIS-Rex mission.

“The presence and condition of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds in Bennu, suggest an aqueous past for the asteroid,” said principal investigator Dante Lauretta. in a statement.

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This Bennu particle, about a millimeter across, reveals a bright phosphate crust under a microscope.
Credit: Lauretta & Connolly et al. (2024) Meteoritics and Planetary Science

NASA’s $800 million OSIRIS-Rex mission, short for Origin, Spectral Interpretation, Source Identification and Security Regolith Explorer, launched in 2016. The robotic spacecraft completed its 4 billion-mile journey when it dropped the capsule from 63,000 miles above Earth into a patch of Utah desert last year. It is the first American mission to receive a sample an asteroid. These are the most important space souvenirs that NASA has received since the year Moon rocks of Apollocollected between 1969 and 1972.

NASA chose Bennu for the mission because it has a very remote chance of hitting Earth in the coming centuries. Learning about asteroids can be helpful in future attempts to redirect 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 may be older than the 4.5-billion-year-old solar system. These grains of stardust may have come from the dying stars OR Supernovas which eventually led to the formation of SUN and the planets.

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asteroid Bennu sample

NASA has made the asteroid Bennu samples collected during the OSIRIS-Rex mission available to scientists around the world for research.
Credit: NASA / Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold

All life forms on Earth have specific chemicals in their composition, such as amino acids and sugars. Scientists have known that asteroids carry molecules believed to be precursors to these chemicals. This is why many space rocks suspect that they were responsible for being brought to the planet through collisions in ancient cosmic history. By studying the Bennu samples, they hope to gain more insight into how these compounds may have evolved.

“What I want to know is how do you 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 discovery in the dream would be evidence of amino acids beginning to link together through chemical bonds to form a chain, known as a peptide, that signals the evolution of proteins.

the surface of the asteroid Bennu

Bennu is droplet-shaped and composed of gravel and rocks barely held together by their own microgravity.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona

The mission succeeded in bringing home half a cup of crushed stone and dirt. So far, researchers have not been disappointed with their generosity.

The sample is rich in nitrogen and carbon, essential ingredients for life. The team’s early analysis has found many clay minerals, in particular SERPENT. This is similar to the type of rocks found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth, where geologists think the recipe for life may have begun on our planet.

The magnesium-sodium phosphate in the Bennu sample resembles the sodium phosphates in Enceladus. This moon of Saturn is encased in an ocean of salty water beneath the ice and is known to shoot large geysers into space. Similar phosphate-enriched fluids are found in Earth’s soda lakes, such as Last Chance and Goodenough in Canada.

NASA is receiving the OSIRIS-Rex capsule

The OSIRIS-Rex sample return capsule after landing on Earth.
Credit: NASA / Keegan Barber

In the new OSIRIS-Rex paper, scientists suggest a “possible connection” between Bennu and Enceladus, but this idea would require more investigation to prove. Research into the sample has only begun to scratch the surface.

“These findings underscore the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu,” Lauretta said, “especially low-density material that would normally burn up (if it entered) Earth’s atmosphere.”

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