Building blocks of life found in samples from asteroid Bennu

The Manila Times

Building blocks of life found in samples from asteroid Bennu  Rock and dust samples retrieved by NASA from the asteroid Bennu exhibit some of the chemical building blocks of life, according to research that provides some of the best evidence to date that such space rocks may have seeded early Earth with the raw ingredients that fostered the emergence of living organisms. Present in the samples were 14 of the 20 organic compounds called amino acids that are used to make proteins - complex molecules that play indispensable roles in the structure, function and regulation of living organisms. Present also were all five nucleobases - the genetic components of DNA and RNA in all life on Earth. The Bennu samples were obtained directly from an asteroid and were kept pristine. These were delivered to Earth in 2023 by parachute inside a capsule released by the US space agency's robotic  OSIRIS-REx, which collected the samples in 2020, that landed in the Utah desert.  NASA TV / REUTERS  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews #NASA #Bennu #asteroid

Transcript

00:00You ready to see the results of the mission?

00:03Take a peek.

00:12So the first analysis shows samples that contain abundant water in the form of hydrated as both minerals and organic molecules.

00:31And at nearly 5% carbon by weight, carbon being the central element of life, far exceeding our goal of 60 grams.

00:46This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth.

00:52And why are we doing this?

00:56Because at NASA, we are trying to find out who we are, what we are, where we came from.

01:05And this mission will help our scientists investigate planet formation for generations to come.

01:13And it's going to deepen our understanding of our solar system.

01:17With that nitrogen flow attached, the next day, Monday, September 25th, it was flown from Utah to Edmonton Air Force Base

01:26and brought here to bed link those parts off to get a little further in so that we can then distribute that sample into bulk sample handling trays,

01:35which are triangular and look sort of like deep dish.

01:38Bounty of sample on our hands already, and we're not even inside of TAGSAM.

01:42The views here are amazing of this sample, and they're only

01:46The science canister, that's like the vault that protected the sample on the return journey home.

01:51And sitting inside there is the TAGSAM.

01:53That's the device that actually touched the surface of Bennu, collected sample, kind of like a vacuum cleaner.

02:00The first panel there in the upper left, those are the water-bearing clay minerals, and they have this fibrous kind of structure.

02:08We call this serpentine because they look like serpents or snakes inside the sample.

02:13And they have water X-ray computed tomography.

02:16It's like a CAT scan.

02:18So without cutting into the rock, we can actually look inside.

02:21We can see the textures and the distributions of the minerals.

02:24This helps us intelligently select areas where we want to make cuts so that we get the most exciting science results.

02:30It also gives us a good sense of the size and shape of the particle.

02:34This is the biggest one.

02:35It's about two millimeters across, and you can see here in red those sulfide minerals.

02:41And then finally, the last panel there, panel E, just shows two very different kinds of rocks sitting next to each other.

02:48One of our key hypotheses is that they're in the center just to the right, kind of a light bluish fluorescence.

02:53That's from a carbonate mineral, so carbon locked up in this mineral grain.

02:57But then you see these small specks of light.

02:59It looks like stars, right, glowing.

03:01This is organic matter.

03:03In just a few moments, we're going to reach peak heating and peak deceleration.

03:08That's at 32 G-forces, punishing G-force on our SRC, a phenomenal view of that streaking SRC coming in across the sky.

03:24That parachute deployment was given internally by the spacecraft.

03:27All of what you're seeing now is autonomous onboard that SRC.

03:31The team on the WB-57.

03:36Touchdown. I repeat, DDL. SRC has touchdown.

03:42And touchdown of the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule.

03:45A journey of a billion miles to asteroid Bennu and back has come to an end.

03:50Approach the sample.

03:52Check the area for any unexploded ordinances, UXOs, that could possibly be out there on the range.

03:58As I mentioned, that first person on scene will be the on-scene commander, Stu Wiley.

04:03He'll be doing an environmental sweep.

04:05We're getting a nice close-up view.

04:06You can see that parachute disconnected.

04:08You can see some of the wiring of it.

04:10There, just a little, are pieces of the asteroid Bennu.

04:14We'll be getting access to those samples in just a few days.

04:17And actually seeing exactly what we got from the asteroid Regolith.

04:23Helo-1 has landed at the recovery site.

04:27So our first helicopter, you just heard confirmation, and you can see visual confirmation of that landing.

04:31We're maybe about 100, 200 feet away.

04:52NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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