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\n Media contact:<\/strong> Brittany Steff, bsteff@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The organic ingredients to life, hints to where Earth\u2019s water came from, and the fundamental building blocks of our planet and the solar system seem like a lot to fit in 4 ounces of dusty rock, but that\u2019s exactly what scientists have found in samples of asteroid Bennu brought to Earth in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michelle Thompson<\/a>, associate professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences<\/a> in Purdue\u2019s College of Science<\/a>, was one of the first nine lead investigators from the science team to study the samples<\/a>. She was on the \u201ctiger team\u201d \u2014 the team of experts who were given first access to the sample of the asteroid Bennu returned from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft last year. They had 72 hours to make the preliminary measurements and assessments of the sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thompson, an expert in extraplanetary bodies, chemistry and how they interact with the environment of space, explained that these results help scientists understand the makeup of the early solar system \u2014 including the mineral components Earth formed from and the organic molecules that might have led to the evolution of life upon it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAsteroids are relics of the early solar system,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThey\u2019re like time capsules. We can use them to examine the origin of our solar system and to open a window to the origin of life on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Major research results<\/a> from studying Bennu, including findings gleaned from the first feverish 72 hours of examining the sample, were recently published in the journal Nature<\/a>, with Thompson as a co-author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OSIRIS-REx<\/a>, NASA\u2019s first mission to acquire a sample from an asteroid and deliver it to Earth, is the culmination of more than a decade of work by a team of hundreds. OSIRIS-REx\u2019s name, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security \u2014 Regolith Explorer, encapsulates the program\u2019s goals. Results will help give scientists insight into the origin of the terrestrial planets and the earliest history of our solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a truly once-in-a-lifetime \u2014 maybe a once-in-several-lifetimes \u2014 experience,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cOSIRIS-REx was selected in 2011, the year I started graduate school, and launched in 2016, the year I finished my PhD. It reached Bennu in 2018, the year I came to Purdue. And now I am one of the first humans to get to study it. Bennu is a treasure trove of information; this is literally the project of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two other asteroid missions \u2014 Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, both launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency \u2014 brought asteroid samples back to Earth and shared those samples with the OSIRIS-REx science team, including Thompson. NASA also shared a small amount of the asteroid Bennu sample with several other Japanese institutions, seeding scientific knowledge across the globe as asteroids cross-seed minerals throughout the solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OSIRIS-REx brought back a canister containing 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of asteroid Bennu material \u2014 almost the same weight as a medium-sized apple, a stick of butter or a baby panda. The mission\u2019s goal was to return 60 grams of sample, allowing scientists to get their best first look at what minerals and organic molecules make up asteroids like Bennu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, pieces of asteroids can fall to Earth on their own. But when they do, they don\u2019t get here unscathed. Screaming through the friction of Earth\u2019s atmosphere is a violent process, and not many rocks make it to the surface intact. And once they\u2019re down, they are immediately contaminated by Earth\u2019s abundant, aggressive and exuberant ecosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Escorting the rock down, gently and insulated in still-pristine condition using human innovation, gave scientists a privileged look at the asteroid as it was in space, lending understanding to a wide range of planetary science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid, which means that the element carbon \u2014 a fundamental element found in life \u2014 makes up part of its composition. Like charcoal, a common carbonaceous material, many of these asteroids are dark, making it hard to understand their composition just by studying them with telescopes from Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A team of 66 scientists from four continents studied the minerals in the Bennu samples. One of the most striking revelations from that research is the abundance of phosphate, sulfate and other salt minerals in the samples. Phosphate minerals are important to living beings on Earth, found in seeds, bones and leaves. The scientists found evidence of an ancient salt lake, an environment well suited to kick-start some of the precursor compounds for the chemistry of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding these minerals and the organic molecules in the samples are critical for understanding their inventory in the early solar system. \u201cLooking at the organic molecules from Bennu, we are getting an understanding of what kinds of molecules could have seeded life on early Earth,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cInformation about what compounds, what elements are there and in what proportions. We won\u2019t find life itself, but we\u2019re looking at the building blocks that could have eventually evolved into life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe scientific community doesn\u2019t have a definitive understanding of how Earth got all its water,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cLooking at how much water is part of these minerals in the samples from Bennu gives us a clue about how much water was out in the solar system when the planets were forming. How much material was available that could have been delivered through impacts \u2014 not just organic material, but water and minerals as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comparing the composition of Bennu and other similar asteroids to icy dwarf planets, including Ceres and Pluto as well as moons of the outer solar system, implies that the building blocks for life could be widespread across the solar system \u2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its comprehensive urban expansion, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n \n Media contact:<\/strong> Brittany Steff, bsteff@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n A tall order in a small canister<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Seeding the early Earth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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