SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT
Using the Advanced Light Source (ALS), researchers identified nitrogen-rich polymers in samples from the asteroid Bennu, revealing early chemical alterations in rocky bodies.
SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT
The results support the idea that asteroids, such as Bennu, may have carried water and the other chemical building blocks of life to Earth in the distant past.
Asteroid holds hidden secrets
In 2023, NASA returned material gathered from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu, which formed from minerals and ice in a primordial nebula. The rocks were gathered as part of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the first US mission to return samples from an asteroid. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) continues to participate in a series of multi-institutional research studies investigating Bennu’s chemical makeup to better understand how our solar system and planets evolved.
Past research on Bennu samples at Berkeley Lab’s ALS revealed that many minerals formed in watery environments. In the current study, the researchers rolled back the clock to examine a narrow period shortly after the asteroid formed but before it was exposed to the water that altered the chemical nature of the rock.
The researchers identified long chains of organic molecules, richer in nitrogen and oxygen than the previous samples. With this information, the team reconstructed the conditions during the earliest periods of the asteroid’s existence.
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