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<\/a><\/figure>Lee esta nota de prensa en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Studies of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security\u2013Regolith Explorer) spacecraft have revealed molecules that, on our planet, are key to life, as well as a history of saltwater that could have served as the \u201cbroth\u201d for these compounds to interact and combine.<\/p>\n The findings do not show evidence for life itself, but they do suggest the conditions necessary for the emergence of life were widespread across the early solar system, increasing the odds life could have formed on other planets and moons.<\/p>\n \u201cNASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx mission already is rewriting the textbook on what we understand about the beginnings of our solar system,\u201d said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cAsteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet\u2019s history, and Bennu\u2019s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n In research papers published Wednesday in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy, scientists from NASA and other institutions shared results of the first in-depth analyses of the minerals and molecules in the Bennu samples, which OSIRIS-REx delivered to Earth in 2023.<\/p>\n Detailed in the Nature Astronomy paper, among the most compelling detections were amino acids \u2013 14 of the 20 that life on Earth uses to make proteins \u2013 and all five nucleobases that life on Earth uses to store and transmit genetic instructions in more complex terrestrial biomolecules, such as DNA and RNA, including how to arrange amino acids into proteins.<\/p>\n Scientists also described exceptionally high abundances of ammonia in the Bennu samples. Ammonia is important to biology because it can react with formaldehyde, which also was detected in the samples, to form complex molecules, such as amino acids \u2013 given the right conditions. When amino acids link up into long chains, they make proteins, which go on to power nearly every biological function.<\/p>\n These building blocks for life detected in the Bennu samples have been found before in extraterrestrial rocks. However, identifying them in a pristine sample collected in space supports the idea that objects that formed far from the Sun could have been an important source of the raw precursor ingredients for life throughout the solar system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe clues we\u2019re looking for are so minuscule and so easily destroyed or altered from exposure to Earth\u2019s environment,\u201d said Danny Glavin, a senior sample scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-lead author of the Nature Astronomy paper<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s why some of these new discoveries would not be possible without a sample-return mission, meticulous contamination-control measures, and careful curation and storage of this precious material from Bennu.\u201d<\/p>\n While Glavin\u2019s team analyzed the Bennu samples for hints of life-related compounds, their colleagues, led by Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, and Sara Russell, cosmic mineralogist at the Natural History Museum in London, looked for clues to the environment these molecules would have formed. Reporting in the journal Nature<\/a>, scientists further describe evidence of an ancient environment well-suited to kickstart the chemistry of life.<\/p>\n Ranging from calcite to halite and sylvite, scientists identified traces of 11 minerals in the Bennu sample that form as water containing dissolved salts evaporates over long periods of time, leaving behind the salts as solid crystals.<\/p>\n Similar brines have been detected or suggested across the solar system, including at the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus.<\/p>\n Although scientists have previously detected several evaporites in meteorites that fall to Earth\u2019s surface, they have never seen a complete set that preserves an evaporation process that could have lasted thousands of years or more. Some minerals found in Bennu, such as trona, were discovered for the first time in extraterrestrial samples.<\/p>\n \u201cThese papers really go hand in hand in trying to explain how life\u2019s ingredients actually came together to make what we see on this aqueously altered asteroid,\u201d said McCoy.<\/p>\n For all the answers the Bennu sample has provided, several questions remain. Many amino acids can be created in two mirror-image versions, like a pair of left and right hands. Life on Earth almost exclusively produces the left-handed variety, but the Bennu samples contain an equal mixture of both. This means that on early Earth, amino acids may have started out in an equal mixture, as well. The reason life \u201cturned left\u201d instead of right remains a mystery.<\/p>\n \u201cOSIRIS-REx has been a highly successful mission,\u201d said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA Goddard and co-lead author on the Nature Astronomy paper. \u201cData from OSIRIS-REx adds major brushstrokes to a picture of a solar system teeming with the potential for life. Why we, so far, only see life on Earth and not elsewhere, that\u2019s the truly tantalizing question.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA Goddard provided overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. The university leads the science team and the mission\u2019s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provided flight operations. NASA Goddard and KinetX Aerospace were responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Curation for OSIRIS-REx takes place at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA\u2019s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA\u2019s New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.<\/p>\n For more information on the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/osiris-rex<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Karen Fox \/ Molly Wasser Rani Gran
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov<\/a> \/ molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
301-286-2483
rani.c.gran@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\nShare<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n