I had never seen this series of minerals on Met Stone, until scientists conducted sample returns controlled by spacecraft and culpted the sample carefully and stored.
Unexpected discovery
Before returning the sample, the OSIRIS-REX spacecraft spent more than two years and observed around Bennu. From the two years of work, researchers have learned that the surface of the asteroid is covered with rocky rocks.
I found out that the asteroids are rich in carbon and water, and we saw it vein Several feet white carbonate deposited by ancient liquid water. However, it was a more unusual mineral that could not be seen from these observations.
I used Technique array Pass the returned sample one by one at a time. These included CT scan, electron microscopes, and X -ray turning, each of which could be seen on a scale that could not be done on asteroids.
Cook the lifelong ingredients
From the salt we identified, we guessed the brinny water composition we had formed, and we were able to see how it changes over time and more abundant sodium.
This BRINY water would have been an ideal place for a new chemical reaction to occur. Organic molecule Form.
Our team characterized salt, but our organic chemist colleagues were busy identifying the carbon -based molecules in Benne. They found unexpectedly High -level ammoniaEssential Building Block amino acid Form a protein of the creature. They again DNA and RNA。
Based on these results, we speculate that these liquid Brinny pods were the best environment for forming more complex organic molecules, such as the type of life on the earth. I will adventure.
When the asteroids like Benne hit the young earth, they were Completely package A complex molecules and components that are essential for life, such as water, phosphate, and ammonia. At first, these components may have sowed barren landscapes at first to create a living world.
Without this early bombardment, probably hundreds of millions of years later the level stalk MET stones landed, these fragments from space would not arrive in the landscape that was refused with glaciers and trees.
Timothy J McCoy Is a supervisor research arts scholar Smithsonian Association, and Sarah Russell Professor of planetary science Natural History Museum。
This article has been reissued conversation Under Creative Commons license. Please read Original article。
