NASA reveals ‘incredible’ findings from asteroid that could explain origins of life on Earth
NASA has revealed its “incredible” findings from a sample that was scooped up from the surface of an asteroid and delivered to Earth by spacecraft.
The sample, ancient black dust and chunks, was collected from the carbon-rich asteroid named Bennu, almost 60 million miles away.
It is the largest ever returned to Earth.
NASA‘s Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected the samples three years ago and then dropped them off sealed in a capsule during a flyby of Earth last month.
Asteroid Bennu seen from the Osiris-Rex spacecraft. Pic: NASA/AP
Scientists hope it can shed light on the origin of the solar system and of life on Earth.
An Osiris-Rex sample analyst, Daniel Glavin, said during a news conference to reveal the material that the sample was “loaded with organics”.
“This is just incredible material,” he said.
“This stuff is an astrobiologist’s dream, I just can’t wait to get at it.”
The scientists have been investigating whether asteroids like Bennu seeded the Earth with pre-biotic chemicals.
Mr Glavin said: “We’re going to learn so much about the origin of the solar system, the evolution and potentially how even life started here on Earth.”
Dante Lauretta, Osiris-Rex principal investigator, said the different sized stones contained in the sample would provide invaluable information for scientists.
‘Something from space we have never seen in our laboratories’
“Something like that would not make it to the surface of the Earth as a meteorite,” he said.
“So to have something from space that we have never seen in our laboratories, there is nothing more exciting.”
Bennu is considered the most dangerous asteroid in the Solar System – although NASA has estimated its chances of actually hitting Earth in 2182 are remote, at just one in 2,700, or 0.037%.
Lori Glaze, director of the agency’s planetary science division, explained how the latest sample could help protect our planet from a catastrophic impact with a space object.
She said the mission allowed NASA to measure a small force created by the sun’s heat and an asteroid’s rotation – explaining this force was “really important for helping us to predict when a particular asteroid might be dangerous”.
A recovery team member examines a capsule containing NASA’s first asteroid samples before it is taken to a temporary clean room at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah
“What we really want to know is if an asteroid is going to cross over Earth’s orbit at the same time that we are in that place, and we want to not be in that place when an asteroid comes by,” she said.
Administrator Bill Nelson – explained the discovery was unprecedented.
“At nearly 5% carbon by weight, carbon being the central element of life, far exceeding our goal of 60g, this is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever returned to earth,” he said.
Carbon and water molecules are “exactly the kind of material that we wanted to find”, Mr Nelson added.
“They are going to help us determine the origin of elements that could have led to life.”
A view of the outside of the OSIRIS-REx sample collector.
Pic:NASA/Reuters
Sky News Science Correspondent Thomas Moore explains what it all means.
So much material has been brought back from asteroid Bennu that it has spilled out of the collection cannister.
NASA scientists still haven’t got inside – they’ve been carefully sweeping together their “bonus sample” to make sure it’s not wasted.
It’s slowed them down, so they’ve only had time to do a basic analysis of the material in the fortnight or so since the capsule parachuted down to Utah’s western desert last month.
Results so far show that it is rich in carbon, an essential element for the organic molecules that are the building blocks of life.
And stunning high magnification images taken with an electron microscope reveal fibrous clay particles that contain water.
That adds to evidence that asteroids bombarding planet Earth billions of years ago brought water that formed the oceans, and also the seeds of life.
But this is just the start.
They now need to work out exactly what chemicals are in the sample.
Analysis of material brought back from another asteroid called Ryugu by a Japanese spacecraft revealed dozens of organic compounds, including amino acids that form proteins.
There was only a tiny amount of material brought back from Ryugu and scientists haven’t yet been able to detect any of the chemical ingredients for making RNA and DNA, the genetic codes of life on Earth.
But there is much more material brought back from Bennu.
Just over a quarter of the material will be analysed over the next two years by scientists at laboratories around the world, including a team at the Natural History Museum in London.
The rest will be preserved for future analysis, as NASA says, by scientists who haven’t been born yet using techniques that can only be imagined.
That might tell us more about our origins. But perhaps also give clues to how our planet formed.
Bennu is a window into the early days of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. It’s likely to have changed very little since it was formed from loose rubble orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
The planets would have been formed from the same material. But Bennu’s material is pristine, unchanged by the intense heat and pressure involved in making a planet.
You can sense the excitement of the scientists. They’ve had so many questions about our place in the Universe.
And with the Bennu sample they might start getting some answers.
World
US blocks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials from United Nations’ annual meeting in New York
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials have been blocked from attending September’s annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has revoked the US visas of delegates from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and denied others from applying for one.
It is the latest step by Donald Trump’s administration to target Palestinians with visa restrictions, and follows the suspension of a programme to allow injured children from Gaza to receive treatment in the US.
Mahmoud Abbas addressed the general assembly in 2024, but is barred from next month’s meeting. Pic: Reuters
“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” a statement from the US State Department said.
It added that, to be considered partners for peace, both groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO”.
Offensive will cause ‘intolerable deaths’
Several US allies, including France, Malta, and Australia have announced plans to recognise Palestine as a state at September’s United Nations General Assembly. Canada and the UK will too, unless Israel meets certain conditions.
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone on Friday.
The army launched a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
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Thick smoke rises from Gaza City after Israeli strikes
Foreign ministers from Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain released a joint statement saying the military operations in Gaza City will cause “intolerable deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians”.
Gaza latest: Israel’s Gaza City offensive condemned
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City while enduring famine.
An Israeli armoured vehicle in northern Gaza on Friday. Pic: AP
Palestinians ride a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Riyad Mansour, said Mr Abbas had planned to lead the delegation to the UN meetings and was expected to address the general assembly at the general debate, which begins on 23 September.
He was also expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on 22 September about a two-state solution, a broad idea involving Israel coexisting with an independent Palestinian state.
The State of Palestine is an observer member of the UN, meaning it can speak at meetings but not vote on resolutions.
The State of Palestine cannot vote on UN resolutions. Pic: AP
US decision ‘contravenes international law’
The Palestinian Authority “expressed its deep regret and astonishment” at the visa decision, calling it “a violation of US commitments” as the host of the UN, and claiming it “contravenes international law”.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body would be seeking clarification in the “hope that this will be resolved”.
Hundreds of diplomats left when Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu began speaking at the general assembly in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The State Department said that the Palestinian Authority’s mission to the UN, comprising officials who are permanently based there, would not be included in the restrictions.
Under a 1947 UN agreement, the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York.
But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Israel is killing a lot of journalists
Hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ by malnutrition cases
Tony Blair meets Trump over Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The death toll in Gaza has now risen to 63,025, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
It also reported five more malnutrition-related deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number during the war to 322, with 121 of them children.
World
Brazil implores businesses to attend major climate summit, despite ‘second thoughts’ amid Trump backlash
The Brazilian hosts of the biggest climate meeting of the year have implored businesses to attend in November, amid concerns some are backing away from the climate agenda into the shadow of Donald Trump.
In an interview with Sky News, Ana Toni, chief executive of the COP30 climate summit in November, admitted some companies were having “second thoughts” about the global switch to green economies because policymakers were creating uncertainty.
The US President Donald Trump has been attacking wind farms and waging tariff wars that could slow the transition to green energy.
Banks including HSBC and Barclays have ditched a net zero alliance set up just four years ago by Mark Carney, now the Canadian Prime Minister.
Ana Toni, Brazil’s climate secretary, is chief executive of the COP30 climate talks. Pic: Reuters
But even before Trump took office, tech companies were quietly dropping climate targets to prioritise energy-hungry AI, and other businesses were “greenhushing” their climate initiatives for fear of backlash.
In this environment, there are fears fewer business leaders will attend the annual talks, which are also being hosted in a city on the edge of the Amazon that hasn’t enough hotel rooms.
On Friday, the COP30 team wrote to business leaders urging them to “step forward, not back” and travel to Belem, despite “logistical challenges” and the “background of systemic uncertainty”.
Ana Toni told Sky News: “We are very concerned that the enabling conditions must be there so that the private sector can also deliver where they do best, which is bringing in technology, bringing innovation and accelerating the process of decarbonisation.”
In August the share price of Danish wind farm developer plummeted after the US halted its Rhode Island wind farm, while the British Tories and Reform parties are also attacking net zero.
Ana Toni met with King Charles and leaders of other COP summits at Clarence House last year. Pic: Reuters
But Ms Toni there is “nothing to panic [about], because we can see that the transition is inevitable,” citing major progress in China, India and Europe and Brazil.
Referring to the US’s withdrawal from the COP process, she said: “198 countries minus one is not zero. And we will put all our efforts of working with the 197 countries that want to go forward and want to protect their population.”
“Climate action is not only [still] cool, it is necessary,” Ms Toni said.
“We all need to face reality. We are going through a huge climate crisis… If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Companies understand that.”
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