NASA's asteroid mission unveils key ingredients for life in space samples

Soror Shaiza | Jan 31, 2025, 00:09 IST
Are we all aliens? NASA's returned asteroid samples hold the ingredients of life from a watery world
( Image credit : AP )
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is shaking up astrobiology with surprising discoveries from asteroid Bennu. The 2023 sample return has revealed organic molecules, including amino acids and nucleobases—crucial ingredients for life. This new evidence supports the theory that asteroids may have delivered life’s building blocks to early Earth, and perhaps even other planets.

The Asteroid Scoop: Bennu’s Surprise Package

In 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned from asteroid Bennu, bringing with it a treasure chest of material from the distant rock. These samples, 4.5 billion years old, are helping scientists unlock some of the solar system's deepest secrets.
Analysis of the material revealed thousands of organic compounds, including 14 of the 20 amino acids that Earth's life uses to form proteins. More shockingly, four nucleobases—which are building blocks for DNA and RNA, the outlines of life—were also found. This discovery revives the age-old debate about whether asteroids could have played a role in kick-starting life on Earth.

A Pristine Time Capsule from Space

The beauty of the OSIRIS-REx mission is in the freshness of its findings. Unlike meteorites, which have been scorched by atmospheric re-entry and could have picked up terrestrial contamination, the Bennu samples arrived intact and pristine. This gives researchers high confidence that these compounds are indeed extraterrestrial.

“It’s like opening a time capsule,” says Danny Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. "We can trust that what we’re seeing came from space, not Earth."

Ammonia, Minerals, and a Few Surprises

But the real kicker came when scientists found surprisingly high levels of ammonia in the Bennu samples—about 100 times higher than what’s typically found in Earth’s soil. Ammonia plays a key role in forming amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.

In addition, scientists discovered 11 minerals likely formed from ancient briny water evaporating on Bennu’s parent asteroid. The crystals left behind resemble those seen in Earth’s dry lakebeds. This suggests Bennu’s parent body may have been a more complex chemical stew than we ever imagined.

What’s Missing: The Mystery of Life’s Spark

While the Bennu samples confirm the presence of the raw materials for life, they don't answer the big question: Why didn’t life form on Bennu? Jason Dworkin, a NASA project scientist, points out that this is the million-dollar question. With the right ingredients, what made Earth special? Future research will delve into what happened on Earth that may have triggered life’s spark, and why other worlds didn’t quite make the jump.

This groundbreaking research not only rewrites the story of life’s origins on Earth but also opens the door to the possibility that life’s building blocks may be far more widespread across the universe than we ever thought.

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