Scientists studying the sample collected in 2023 from asteroid Bennu have announced a dramatic finding: they have identified the key building blocks of life within the sample. Although this does not mean that life is present on Bennu, a small asteroid in our solar system, it does show that the conditions for life to emerge are present in locations beyond Earth.
Researchers have been studying the 121-gram sample since it was dropped into the Utah desert by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023. Now, in a pair of two papers published in the journals Nature and in Nature Astronomy, scientists announced they have identified 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to make proteins within the sample. Additionally, the sample also shows evidence that saltwater was once present on the asteroid, which would have provided a medium for these compounds to interact.
“These samples from Bennu are an incredible discovery, showing that the building blocks of life were widespread across the early solar system,” said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, leader of the OSIRIS-REx mission. “By studying how these ingredients interacted in environments like those on Bennu and in places inferred for the early Earth – such as salty ponds similar to those Darwin once imagined – we can better understand how life might emerge and where to search for it beyond our planet.”
As well as the amino acids, scientists also identified 11 minerals that are formed when saltwater evaporates, giving information about the asteroid’s watery past. The presence of these minerals indicates that it was warm enough for the asteroid to host liquid water at some point, likely in underground pockets, which would provide a location for the necessary chemical reactions for life to occur.
Some of the minerals identified in the Bennu sample have never been found in a sample from beyond Earth before, and finding them indicates that the conditions for life to emerge are not unique to our planet. Researchers describe the early solar system as “teeming with the potential for life,” with the big open question now being why life developed here but not elsewhere.
“This is the kind of finding you hope you’re going to make on a mission,” said researcher Tim McCoy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “We found something we didn’t expect, and that’s the best reward for any kind of exploration.”
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.