Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
New Delhi: Scientists just found something wild on a tiny asteroid called Bennu. The same amino acid that gets blamed every Thanksgiving for making people sleepy after eating turkey. We are talking about tryptophan.
NASA’s OSIRIS REx mission brought back 121.6 grams of dust and rocks from Bennu in 2023. Now researchers say this space sample holds a chemical clue to the beginning of life.
The latest study reveals that Bennu contains 15 of the 20 amino acids needed by life. One of them is tryptophan. The paper states that the samples “preserve a record of the chemical evolution of the early Solar System”.
Scientists got excited because tryptophan “has not been detected previously in extraterrestrial materials”. Imagine. A key protein building block, out there since 4.5 billion years, simply waiting to be scooped up.
And now when someone says turkey makes you sleepy, you can tell them the ingredient also came from an asteroid. Little cosmic humour.
Researchers say the organic chemicals in Bennu might look like ingredients used by early Earth. The research paper says, “Such asteroids may have seeded Earth and other bodies with the prebiotic inventory for the origin of life.”
So these rocks did not bring aliens or microbes. They brought building blocks. The raw materials.
Scientists suggest that:
The sample they tested weighed only 50 milligrams. Yet it gave a huge answer.
Bennu circles Earth every few years. It may have formed between Mars and Jupiter before drifting towards us. Observations show minerals and ammonia inside the rock. Both help amino acids form.
Bennu has been near our planet for around 1.75 million years, moving at speeds that shift its orbit slowly. One NASA estimate puts its impact chance as “0.037%” in the year 2182. If that ever happens, scientists worry it could lead to a “global winter”.
Japanese scientists earlier found amino acids on asteroid Ryugu. Meteorites landing on Earth also carry similar molecules. Researchers believe if there are matching chemicals everywhere, then nature may be following rules that guide life in many worlds.
