NASA Detects Unprecedented Organic Molecules, Including Sugars and ‘Space Gum,’ in Asteroid Bennu Samples
WASHINGTON – NASA scientists have announced the discovery of sugars and a novel, polymer-like material dubbed ”space gum” within samples collected from the asteroid Bennu, offering new insights into the building blocks of life and the early solar system. The findings, revealed Tuesday, stem from analysis of material returned to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx mission in September 2023.
The detection of ribose and other sugars – essential components of RNA, a molecule closely related to DNA – marks the first time these compounds have been found in a rocky asteroid sample. “These sugars are crucial to life as we know it, and to find them in a sample from an asteroid like Bennu suggests that asteroids may have delivered these ingredients to early Earth,” said Danny Glavin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight center in a video accompanying the announcement. He added he wouldn’t be surprised to find similar compounds in samples from the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu.
Beyond the sugars, researchers identified an unusual, polymer-like substance unlike anything previously observed in space rocks. “It was like nothing we had ever seen,” said Zack Gainsforth of the University of California, in a NASA statement. “For months we were consumed by data and theories as we attempted to understand just what it was and how it could have come into existence.” The hardened substance, once soft and flexible, is rich in nitrogen and oxygen and may represent an early chemical precursor to life. The discovery was published in Nature Astronomy.
A third study, also published in Nature Astronomy, revealed that Bennu contains six times more dust from ancient exploding stars than any other known space material. This indicates Bennu’s parent body formed in a region of the early solar nebula heavily enriched with stellar dust, according to scientists.
“On this primitive asteroid that formed in the early days of the solar system,we’re looking at events near the beginning of the beginning,” said Scott Sandford,an astrophysicist at the Ames Research Center in California.The OSIRIS-REx mission delivered approximately 250 grams of rock and dust from Bennu, and analysis of the samples is ongoing, promising further revelations about the origins of our solar system and the potential for life beyond Earth.
