Possible Sign of Alien Life From Ancient Ocean Planet Discovered in Asteroid Sample

Another day, another sign of life on other planets that aren't fit for any sitcom.

By Andrew Roberts

Scientists have dug into some interesting discoveries from the pristine asteroid they recovered as part of NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer.) The sample asteroid, Bennu, was collected in the fall of 2023, and many hoped it would give a glimpse at the chemistry that possibly sparked life on Earth.

According to Phys.Org, the OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team discovered that Bennu contains ingredients that originally helped form the solar system. The asteroid is rich in carbon, nitrogen and many other organic compounds that are essential to creating life, including a surprising amount of magnesium-sodium phosphate.

"The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggests a watery past for the asteroid," Dante Lauretta, co-lead author of the paper behind the investigation said. "Bennu potentially could have once been part of a wetter world, although this hypothesis requires further investigation."

"OSIRIS-REx gave us exactly what we hoped: a large pristine asteroid sample rich in nitrogen and carbon from a formerly wet world," Jason Dworkin added. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft traveled to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu back in September 2016 and returned to Earth last fall. It was the first U.S. mission to collect these samples

"These findings underscore the importance of collecting and studying material from asteroids like Bennu-especially low-density material that would typically burn up upon entering Earth's atmosphere," Lauretta said. "This material holds the key to unraveling the intricate processes of solar system formation and the prebiotic chemistry that could have contributed to life emerging on Earth."

So if you were hoping for an update on The Andromeda Strain or preparing for the worst version of it, you'll have to wait for another foreign space object. But the folks at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are on the case if it does ever happen.

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