The building blocks of life were discovered in the Bennu meteor, which was brought to the world by the US space agency NASA. Scientists, as a result of the analysis of the examples taken from Bennu, expressed that there are some building blocks for the development of life amino acids, the main components of DNA, nucleobases, a rich mineral series and thousands of organic compounds stressed.
Within the scope of NASA’s Osırıs-Rex mission, a hundreds of millions of kilometers of way to contact Bennu and made a seven-year journey to collect materials. Since the return of the sample to Earth on September 24, 2023, scientists have carefully examining the material to see whether or not to present clues to life.
Part of the material was brought to the Natural History Museum in London for examination. The research revealed that Bennu has both the environment and chemical components necessary to produce molecules known to be associated with life. Professor Sara Russell, who served as a cosmic mineral at the Natural History Museum and served as the co -chairman of the research, said: The combination of protected molecules and minerals is not similar to any extraterrestrial examples previously examined ”.
What’s in Bennu’s soil?
Bennu is thought to come from a wet, salty main body that is still unknown, formed in the dawn of the solar system. The molecular composition of the asteroid indicates that it is probably beyond Saturn’s orbit, from the extremely cold areas of space. However, this final analysis even sheds light on what the main asteroid resembles.
Bennu’s main asteroid shows that it is probably home to salt water or salt -saturated water pockets that are evaporated by leaving salts similar to dried lake deposits on Earth. Salt water is important in search of life because they can promote chemical reactions and produce the necessary molecules for the development of life.
14 out of 20 amino acids were detected in Bennu
Researchers also found amino acids in the example of Bennu. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that form everything from plant leaves to liver to liver. Proteins form hormones and antibodies, support the structure of our cells, and provide biological reactions in our body. Attentionally, all living things use only 20 different amino acids arranged in unlimited number of combinations to create millions of different proteins. In the case of Bennu, scientists identified 14 of these 20 amino acids.
Some amino acids can be formed in two ways reflecting each other, such as a pair of right and left hands. Life in Earth uses the left hand of these amino acids. Scientists had found left -handed amino acids in similar meteors that had fallen to Earth before, and therefore assumed that the Bennu example would show the same thing. “We surprised to see that Bennu had a mixture of left and right -handed amino acids, Prof said Professor Sara Russell.
DNA includes building blocks
In addition to salts and amino acids, scientists also found nucleobases in Bennu examples. Nucleobazs are the individual building blocks of DNA and include all five main bases in living organisms.
