Nasa reveals first findings from asteroid that could explain origins of life

A sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu has been found to contain an abundance of water and carbon, reinforcing the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space.

Just two weeks after the sample was parachuted into the Utah desert, a small quantity of the material was unveiled by Nasa at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to Earth," Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said.

The asteroid material "included waterlogged clay minerals", said The New York Times. This "could help solve how Earth became a water planet" as asteroids similar to Bennu "may have crashed into Earth, filling our oceans". The sample also contained sulphur, a crucial element for many geological transformations in rocks.

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Like other asteroids, Bennu "is a relic of the early solar system", said Al Jazeera. Because its present-day chemistry and mineralogy are "virtually unchanged since its formation", it could prove central to studies of astrobiology.

Nasa's unmanned Osiris-Rex spacecraft launched from Florida in 2016 and reached Bennu just over two years later. It made a brief, five-second contact with the asteroid in October 2020, gathering the material, which it then sent back to Earth via its sample capsule.  

Nasa will now distribute parts of the Bennu sample to researchers around the world, who will study it in great detail. Their work will determine, among other things, "the identity of the carbon compounds, which could shed light on how life got started here on Earth", said Space.com.

 "The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg," said Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of the mission at the University of Arizona.

"With each revelation from Bennu, we draw closer to unraveling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage."