(ORDO NEWS) — An ongoing effort to deconstruct the chemistry of the most pristine asteroid sample ever found in a lab has unearthed a host of organic molecules, supporting theories that biology’s roots ultimately go back to space.
More than two years have passed since the material from the surface of the asteroid Ryugu was brought to Earth in a sealed capsule.
Since then, researchers from around the world have worked together to study its composition to better understand how it fits into the evolution of our solar system.
These latest results confirm the relationship between carbon-based compounds. found on stony “chondrite” meteorites that have fallen to the surface of the Earth, and the chemical composition of the asteroids from which they originated.
By exploring the similarities and differences between Ryugu specimens and carbonaceous chondrite meteorites on Earth, scientists can take a fresh look at the meteorites in our collections.
In other words, real samples of asteroids are useful for confirming hypotheses based on the fact that their pieces fall on the surface of our planet after a brief warming up in the atmosphere.
“Previous analyzes have identified organic molecules in carbonaceous chondrites, but so far we have not been able to see if these primitive projectiles differ from what is found on asteroids,” says space chemist Larry Nittler, formerly of the Carnegie Institution in Washington and now at Arizona State University.
“Our work on the Ryugu samples provides the first direct link between organic material found in chondrites and asteroids.”
Often referred to as the building blocks of life because of the role they play in the origin of life, newly identified molecules include several types of amino acids that combine to create proteins that organisms rely on for existence.
In just 5 grams (0.18 oz) of material, about 20,000 organic molecules have been identified. These include organic compounds such as carboxylic acids, amines and aromatic hydrocarbons; compounds that are closely related to a wide range of molecules that are critical to the entire living world.
The findings support the idea that the ingredients needed for life to originate arrived on our planet in an already complex form through asteroid impacts.
How this organic dust could combine into a kind of generative chemistry remains a matter of debate, but knowledge of the cosmos provides the right conditions for the genesis of so many of the relevant compounds, giving scientists a good start for experimentation.
Because these asteroids are essentially leftovers from when the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, they can also tell us a lot about the earliest moments of our planet’s creation.
Through certain chemical markers – including the amount of water present – scientists can try to determine when and where Ryugu formed, giving us a snapshot of conditions at a certain point in the solar system’s development.
“At least some of the organic matter in the Ryugu samples predates the formation of the Sun and formed under extremely cold conditions,” says geochemist George Cody of the Carnegie Institution of Science in Washington, DC.
These new studies show the benefits of probes. who collect material from asteroids, such as the Hayabusa-2 ship that extracted the stone from Ryugu.
Unlike the meteorite samples, this dust and rock has not been affected by any kind of weathering as it is in contact with soil, water and air.
Moreover, trying to analyze an asteroid in space is also not easy – not least because they move so fast and reflect little light, limiting the readings that instruments can get. In the laboratory, much more time and attention can be devoted to extracting data from these materials.
“In the past, our research was limited to studying space rocks that came to us as a result of a collision with the Earth,” says Cody.
“With Hayabusa2, we were finally able to get to a carbon-rich asteroid and compare it to meteorites reaching Earth.”
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.