CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Asteroid samples fetched by NASA hold not only the pristine building blocks for life but also the salty remains of an ancient water world, scientists reported Wednesday.
The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that asteroids may have planted the seeds of life on Earth and that these ingredients were mingling with water almost from the start.
The samples, totaling 122 grams of dust and pebbles from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, were collected by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft and delivered to Earth in 2023. The samples were then doled out to two separate research teams, who published their findings in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy.
The study revealed the presence of sodium-rich minerals, amino acids, nitrogen in the form of ammonia, and parts of the genetic code, all in the samples. The materials were similar to what’s found in the dry lakebeds of California’s Mojave Desert and Africa’s Sahara, and would be stripped away if present in falling meteorites.
“This discovery was only possible by analyzing samples that were collected directly from the asteroid and then carefully preserved back on Earth,” said Yasuhito Sekine of the Institute of Science, Tokyo, who was not involved in the studies.
The findings suggest that asteroids may have played a crucial role in delivering the building blocks of life to Earth, potentially providing the necessary environment for life to emerge. “Combining the ingredients of life with an environment of sodium-rich salt water, or brines, is really the pathway to life,” said Tim McCoy, curator of meteorites at the National Museum of Natural History.
The mission’s chief scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, said that most of the mission’s cache of samples has been set aside for future analysis, with more testing needed to better understand the Bennu samples and more asteroid and comet sample returns.