JoeSchmuckatelli Posted Wednesday at 09:24 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 09:24 PM (edited) 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 Small amounts of Bennu’s precious black grains — leftovers from the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago — were doled out to the two separate research teams whose studies appeared in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy. But it was more than enough to tease out the sodium-rich minerals and confirm the presence of amino acids, nitrogen in the form of ammonia and even parts of the genetic code the ones from Bennu are valid — “real extraterrestrial organic material formed in space and not a result of contamination from Earth.” https://apnews.com/video/nasas-returned-asteroid-samples-hold-the-ingredients-to-life-plus-salts-from-an-ancient-water-world-17c4adabcb514d57952288becbae4b3d Video link above - article below https://apnews.com/article/asteroid-bennu-nasa-sample-return-e3318592d16a53bea56c1ff689555f0d 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. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-asteroid-bennu-sample-reveals-mix-of-lifes-ingredients/ Edited Wednesday at 09:27 PM by JoeSchmuckatelli Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted Wednesday at 09:46 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 09:46 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FleshJeb Posted Wednesday at 09:47 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 09:47 PM (edited) Two papers published today: "An evaporite sequence from ancient brine recorded in Bennu samples" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08495-6 "Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02472-9 Links lifted from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-latest-asteroid-sample-hints-at-lifes-extraterrestrial-origins/ EDIT: Ninja'd by Joe, that's what I get for checking my work Edited Wednesday at 09:48 PM by FleshJeb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted Wednesday at 10:01 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 10:01 PM 11 minutes ago, FleshJeb said: Ninja'd by Joe, that's what I get for checking my work Grin - it's worse than you think... I was so excited by the news I originally posted to the wrong sub! Go to the last post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted yesterday at 02:39 AM Share Posted yesterday at 02:39 AM 4 hours ago, FleshJeb said: Links lifted from Hey - I appreciate the links! I was looking for them when I saw your post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IonStorm Posted 13 hours ago Author Share Posted 13 hours ago 16 hours ago, FleshJeb said: Two papers published today: "An evaporite sequence from ancient brine recorded in Bennu samples" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08495-6 "Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02472-9 Thanks for the interest and the links. Here's the page with the graphics from the press briefing https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14772. The papers are open access so you are welcome to browse them as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IonStorm Posted 9 hours ago Author Share Posted 9 hours ago NASA Science Live Asteroid Bennu Originated from World with Ingredients and Conditions for Life Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT) https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/nasa-science-live/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted 6 hours ago Share Posted 6 hours ago 7 hours ago, IonStorm said: the interest Hey - thanks for the links! How unexpected was it to find left and right handed proteins or mirrored amino acids? (This is something I don't know much about) - was it just a surprise to find the abundance of proteins and amino acids at all, with the mirroring being a further surprise - or is finding the balance particularly exciting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IonStorm Posted 5 hours ago Author Share Posted 5 hours ago 42 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said: Hey - thanks for the links! How unexpected was it to find left and right handed proteins or mirrored amino acids? (This is something I don't know much about) - was it just a surprise to find the abundance of proteins and amino acids at all, with the mirroring being a further surprise - or is finding the balance particularly exciting? I was disappointed at the equal left and right. We had predicted that very wet asteroids, like Bennu, would show an excess of some left amino acids. So our hypothesis was wrong. So goes science. Here's a discussion https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00474# There is a video on the bottom of the page https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00474#_suppInfo describing this article in reasonably accessible language. Also the abundance was 5x higher than in Ryugu but 2x lower than in the Murchison meteorite. No proteins have been discovered yet. We haven't done the correct experiment, but it is planned. For those having trouble with chirality, here is a video https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14142/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted 5 hours ago Share Posted 5 hours ago 26 minutes ago, IonStorm said: having trouble with chirality Grin - my introduction to chirality was a sci-fi story about a guy who landed on a planet where all the life had the wrong chirality, and thus he was bummed he could not eat anything. Pretty good introduction into the importance of chirality - but not often discussed elsewhere. Thanks for the links; will dig into them soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted 4 hours ago Share Posted 4 hours ago Folks - If you will excuse my presumption - I'm going to "report" this thread and ask it to be moved to the Science and Spaceflight sub. That's where most of us who are in to the science hang out. This sub is unfortunately part of the KSP-1 Mission ideas sub. Don't know if they will - but if you come back and it's moved; that's the target! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanamonde Posted 4 hours ago Share Posted 4 hours ago Looks like the thread started out as a mission suggestion but wandered into real space science? Moved to Science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.