organic materials

Imaging of the Osiris-Rex probe collecting a sample from the Bennu asteroid. Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Building blocks of life: Asteroid samples indicate path of ice formation

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Researchers analyzed stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in samples from the asteroid Bennu. Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons. The ratio of them serves as a chemical “fingerprint.”
A carbonaceous meteorite is about to crash into Earth. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Scientists may have solved a space rock mystery that could change our understanding of the beginnings of life

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An international study has found that carbon-rich meteorites are rare on Earth because they break up in space or burn up in the atmosphere, which could change our understanding of the origin of life.
The Yabusa 2 spacecraft near asteroid Ryugu, courtesy of JAXA

Surprising discoveries about the carbon richness of asteroid Ryugu and the composition of matter in the early solar system

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Japanese researchers who examined the soft materials that returned to Earth from the asteroid Ryugo in the Yabusa 2 spacecraft now estimate that the protoplanetary bodies from which the planets and asteroids were formed were richer in carbon than previously thought.
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