“The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’
biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the
origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples
delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral
Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer)
spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by […]
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#^Sugars, “Gum,” Stardust Found in NASA’s Asteroid Bennu Samples“The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by the journals Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy present remarkable discoveries: sugars essential for biology, a gum-like substance not seen before in astromaterials, and an unexpectedly high abundance of dust produced by supernova explosions.
Scientists led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University in Japan found sugars essential for biology on Earth in the Bennu samples, detailing their findings in the journal
Nature Geoscience. The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found. Although these sugars are not evidence of life, their detection, along with
previous detections of amino acids, nucleobases, and carboxylic acids in Bennu samples, show building blocks of biological molecules were widespread throughout the solar system.”
From
NASA.
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Sugars, “Gum,” Stardust Found in NASA’s Asteroid Bennu Samples appeared first on
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