by Samples of a 4.5 billion year old asteroid that traveled millions of miles to make it to Earth could reveal the origins of life on the planet.
The teaspoon-sized specimen, taken from the asteroid Bennu, is being examined by scientists at the Natural History Museum (NHM).
The unimaginably black, dust-like sample could help shed light on some of the biggest questions about how the Earth formed.
According to experts, it could hold vital clues about the formation of the planets and our solar system.
Professor Sara Russell, senior research leader at the NHM, told the PA news agency: “We’re very excited at the moment because we’ve just found a tiny bit of black powder, but it came from space in really.”
She said: “We are delighted to have found a piece of the Bennu asteroid because we believe this asteroid has been around since the earliest times of the solar system, when the solar system and the sun and the planets were forming four and a half billion years ago. long ago.
“It formed from a swirling disk of dust and gas, and we think we may have components here of that time period.”
Professor Russell is already undergoing rigorous examination of the sample, which is in a nitrogen glove box, meaning it has not been contaminated by exposure to air, to preserve its natural state.
The task involves standing in front of the sealed box and using the attached gloves to carry out experiments.
Explaining what the sample might contain, Professor Russell told PA: “There are also minerals, we think, like clays that save loads of water, so there could be a lot of water and which could tell us how the Earth managed to become a habitable water. planet.
“Also, we think there could be a few percent of carbon, which could be in the form of organic carbon, so we need to investigate that further.
“But asteroids like Bennu may have provided the nutrients needed for life to thrive on Earth.”
In September NASA’s Osiris-Rex (Origin, Spectrum Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer), became the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid and return it to Earth.
NHM scientists are among the international team that received part of the sample for analysis.
Bennu is a carbon-rich asteroid, containing about 5% by mass, some of which is organic.
The team also believes that extraterrestrial water may be trapped within its minerals, and analysis of these minerals will help the team test the theory that asteroids delivered water to our planet 4.5 billion years ago.
Professor Russell said: “When the Earth was formed it was probably formed really, really hot, and things like water would have just boiled off and escaped into space, it would have been very dry when it came he met for the first time.
“So the question is, how did we get to be on this beautiful blue planet covered in oceans?
“And the answer is probably that water was brought to it by the impact of asteroids and comets from the outer solar system.
“But we want to understand that process more. If we understand that we might better understand how likely it is that we find habitable worlds around other stars as well.”
She added: “It will definitely help us understand the origins of life.”
Asked what her dream find would be, Professor Russell said: “It’s beyond my wildest dreams, just to have the sample, but I think I’m really looking forward to seeing if it’s possible we find grains there that are only. old, but super old, formed before the asteroid formed, maybe even formed before our solar system formed.
“So they might be pro-solar grains that formed around our progenitor stars, and that would be very interesting, exciting to explore.”
Asteroid Bennu is thought to be similar in composition to the Winchcombe meteorite that fell to Earth in 2021.
Although the rapid collection of the Winchcombe meteorite made it quite uncontaminated, it was still interacting with our atmosphere.
The Bennu samples, collected in space, are still uncontaminated, making them pristine time capsules from the earliest history of our solar system.
Ashley King, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Natural History Museum, said: “The Natural History Museum has one of the best collections of meteorites in the world but for many of them we don’t know where they came from in the solar system.
“With this sample collected by NASA from the surface of the asteroid Bennu, we know its origin.
“This means that our findings can be put into a larger context and could help us understand the origin of organisms and water that could have given rise to life on Earth.”
The Museum is one of four institutions in the UK studying samples from NASA, along with the Open University, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester.
