NASA discovers important building block of life in Bennu sample

A US-Japanese research team found compounds considered “building blocks of life” in samples from Bennu, opening up new clues about the origin of life.

In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Geosciences, the US-Japan research team led by Associate Professor Yoshihiro Furukawa from Tohoku University (Japan) said they found some essential biological sugars in the rock samples that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped on Earth. These are the basic building blocks of life. Photo: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

The rock sample was collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from the asteroid Bennu in 2020 and placed in a safe container before being parachuted to the US state of Utah in 2023. Photo: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Dan Gallagher.

The Bennu sample was then divided among several international research teams after the capsule was opened at NASA's Johnson Space Center under tightly controlled conditions to avoid contamination from Earth's environment. Photo: NASA.

Since then, studies of samples taken from the asteroid Bennu have shown that they contain dissolved organic compounds, including amino acids, amines, carboxylic acids, aldehydes, nucleobases, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and a diverse mixture of dissolved molecules including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Photo: NASA.

In a newly published study, the team of experts made an important discovery : biological pathways in samples collected from the asteroid Bennu. Photo: NASA.

Specifically, the team found the five-carbon sugar ribose (RNA sugar). In addition, they also recorded a metabolic substrate recorded for the first time in extraterrestrial samples: six-carbon glucose. Photo: Public domain image by NASA/Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold opens in a new window via NASA Image and Video Library.

While these two sugars are not direct evidence of a living organism, their presence complements previous findings of amino acids, nucleobases, and carboxylic acids in samples from Bennu, which are important building blocks for living cells. Photo: Public domain image by NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona opens in a new window.

For life on Earth, ribose sugar is the main component of RNA. However, experts did not find the biological sugar deoxyribose - the main component of DNA - in the research sample. Photo: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

From here, experts increasingly believe in the hypothesis that, in the early environment of the solar system, life was initially built on the foundation of RNA instead of DNA as many people think. Photo: NASA.

The discovery of the asteroid Bennu provides important information that demonstrates that the key ingredients for life were widespread in the early solar system. Given the right place to nurture life, like Earth, or even Mars, a world with life could have emerged. Image: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab/Jonathan North.

Readers are invited to watch the video: Universe map with more than 900,000 stars, galaxies and black holes. Source: THĐT1.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/nasa-phat-hien-khoi-xay-dung-su-song-quan-trong-trong-mau-vat-bennu-post2149074236.html