«Contains clues to the formation of the solar system»
An unexpected sample taken from the asteroid Bennu shows that the celestial body may have originated from an oceanic world.
Early analysis of a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu suggests the space rock had an unexpectedly water-rich past — and may even have broken off from an ancient ocean world.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is reporting on CNN collected a pristine 4.3-ounce (121.6 gram) sample from a near-Earth asteroid in 2020 and returned it to Earth last September.
Scientists have since been analyzing rocks and dust from the asteroid to find out what secrets they might hold about the composition of the asteroid and whether it could have delivered elements needed for life to Earth. Asteroids are also of interest to scientists because they are remnants of the solar system.
Initial analysis of some samples, published in October, showed that the asteroid contained large amounts of carbon.
In a new analysis of the sample, the team found that Bennu's dust is rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds that helped form the solar system. These ingredients are also essential for life as we understand it and can help scientists better understand how Earth-like planets evolve.
The study detailing the findings appeared Wednesday in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
“OSIRIS-REx gave us exactly what we were hoping for: a large, pristine asteroid sample rich in nitrogen and carbon from a once-wet world,” said study co-author Jason Dworkin, a research scientist. OSIRIS-REx project at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.
The biggest surprise, CNN notes, was the discovery of magnesium sodium phosphate in the sample, which remote sensing did not initially detect when the OSIRIS-REx mission was orbiting Bennu.
Magnesium sodium phosphate is a compound that can dissolves in water and serves as a component of the biochemistry of life, CNN reports.
The asteroid may have broken off from a tiny, primitive ocean world that is no longer in our solar system, researchers say.
The sample taken from the asteroid is primarily composed of clay minerals, including serpentine, making the sample remarkably similar to rocks found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth. It is at these ridges that material from the mantle, the layer beneath the Earth's crust, comes into contact with water.
A similar phosphate was found in a sample from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa 2 mission. and returned to Earth in December 2020. But the compound from the Bennu sample is purer and has larger particles.
“The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, point to a watery past for the asteroid,” said Dante Lauretta, one of the study's lead authors, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator and professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, in a statement. — Bennu may have once been part of a wetter world. Although this hypothesis requires further study.
The rocks collected on Bennu represent a time capsule from the early days of the solar system, dating back more than 4.5 billion years.
“The sample we obtained is the largest repository of unaltered rocks to date. asteroid material on Earth,» Loretta said.
Astronomers believe space rocks such as asteroids and comets may have served as ancient messengers to our solar system.
“This means asteroids like this may have played a key role in delivering water and the building materials for life to Earth,” said study co-author Nick Timms, a member of the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team and an assistant professor in the School of Geosciences and planets at Curtin University.
If these small rocky bodies had carried water, minerals and other elements and crashed into the Earth during its formation billions of years ago, they could have helped set the stage for the emergence of life on our planet.< /p>
“These results highlight the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu, especially low-density material that typically burns up upon entry into Earth's atmosphere, “ Loretta said. “This material holds clues to the complex processes of solar system formation and prebiotic chemistry that may have contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.”
The huge amount of material collected from the asteroid means that more laboratories around the world will have their own samples to study.
“Bennu's samples are breathtakingly beautiful extraterrestrial rocks, said study co-lead author Harold Connolly Jr., OSIRIS-REx sample specialist and director of the study, in a statement. Department of Geology at the School of Earth and Environment at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. “Each week, the OSIRIS-REx sample analysis team produces new, sometimes unexpected, findings that help establish important constraints on the origin and evolution of Earth-like planets.”
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