Nov 27, 2024 07:56 PM
www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/samples-of-alien-asteroid-ryugu-are-crawling-with-life-from-earth
EXCERPTS: A rock retrieved from a near-Earth asteroid is crawling with microbial life, scientists have discovered. But the bacteria on its surface almost certainly came from Earth.
The sample is part of a 0.2-ounce (5.4 grams) chunk of rock that Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft scraped from the surface of the asteroid Ryugu and brought back to our planet in 2020.
After the spacecraft landed back on Earth, researchers opened the rock in a vacuum room located inside a clean room to prevent contamination...
[...] But it seems that somewhere along the way, for one sample of this rock, these preventative measures were not enough. [...] They published their findings Nov. 13 in the journal Meteorics and Planetary Science.
[...] "The presence of microorganisms within meteorites has been used as evidence for extraterrestrial life, however, the potential for terrestrial contamination makes their interpretation highly controversial," the researchers wrote in the study. "The discovery emphasizes that terrestrial biota can rapidly colonize extraterrestrial specimens even given contamination control precautions." (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: A rock retrieved from a near-Earth asteroid is crawling with microbial life, scientists have discovered. But the bacteria on its surface almost certainly came from Earth.
The sample is part of a 0.2-ounce (5.4 grams) chunk of rock that Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft scraped from the surface of the asteroid Ryugu and brought back to our planet in 2020.
After the spacecraft landed back on Earth, researchers opened the rock in a vacuum room located inside a clean room to prevent contamination...
[...] But it seems that somewhere along the way, for one sample of this rock, these preventative measures were not enough. [...] They published their findings Nov. 13 in the journal Meteorics and Planetary Science.
[...] "The presence of microorganisms within meteorites has been used as evidence for extraterrestrial life, however, the potential for terrestrial contamination makes their interpretation highly controversial," the researchers wrote in the study. "The discovery emphasizes that terrestrial biota can rapidly colonize extraterrestrial specimens even given contamination control precautions." (MORE - missing details)