Dec 13, 2023 06:41 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2...l7LbrnmW1M
INTRO: Before Earth had biology, it had chemistry. How the one followed from the other — how a bunch of boring molecules transformed themselves into this special thing we call life — is arguably the greatest unknown in science. It’s also a big reason NASA sent a robotic spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, on a multiyear journey around the sun to fetch some crumbly material from an ancient asteroid named Bennu and then bring it back to Earth.
On Monday, the scientific community got its first description of that precious, exotic stuff, revealed by the mission’s top scientist, Dante Lauretta, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, showed slides with a long list of intriguing molecules, including carbon-based organics, in the grains and pebbles retrieved from Bennu. They will shine light on the molecular building blocks of the solar system and “maybe — still early phase — maybe insights into the origin of life.”
This analysis has only just started. The team has not yet released a formal scientific paper. In his lecture, Lauretta cited one interesting triangular, light-colored stone, which he said contained something he’d never seen before in a meteorite.
“It’s a head-scratcher right now. What is this material?” he said.
In an interview after the lecture, Lauretta said almost 5 percent of the sample is carbon. “That is a very carbon-rich sample — the richest we have in all our extraterrestrial material. … We’re still unraveling the complex organic chemistry, but it looks promising to really understand: Did these carbon-rich asteroids deliver fundamental molecules that may have gone on to contribute to the origin of life?” (MORE - details)
INTRO: Before Earth had biology, it had chemistry. How the one followed from the other — how a bunch of boring molecules transformed themselves into this special thing we call life — is arguably the greatest unknown in science. It’s also a big reason NASA sent a robotic spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, on a multiyear journey around the sun to fetch some crumbly material from an ancient asteroid named Bennu and then bring it back to Earth.
On Monday, the scientific community got its first description of that precious, exotic stuff, revealed by the mission’s top scientist, Dante Lauretta, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, showed slides with a long list of intriguing molecules, including carbon-based organics, in the grains and pebbles retrieved from Bennu. They will shine light on the molecular building blocks of the solar system and “maybe — still early phase — maybe insights into the origin of life.”
This analysis has only just started. The team has not yet released a formal scientific paper. In his lecture, Lauretta cited one interesting triangular, light-colored stone, which he said contained something he’d never seen before in a meteorite.
“It’s a head-scratcher right now. What is this material?” he said.
In an interview after the lecture, Lauretta said almost 5 percent of the sample is carbon. “That is a very carbon-rich sample — the richest we have in all our extraterrestrial material. … We’re still unraveling the complex organic chemistry, but it looks promising to really understand: Did these carbon-rich asteroids deliver fundamental molecules that may have gone on to contribute to the origin of life?” (MORE - details)