OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

 

 

[FleshJeb]

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

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

Links lifted from

Hey - I appreciate the links!  I was looking for them when I saw your post. 

[IonStorm]

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. 

[IonStorm]

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/

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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?

 

[IonStorm]

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/

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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!

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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!

[Vanamonde]

Looks like the thread started out as a mission suggestion but wandered into real space science? Moved to Science.