FOR the first time, scientists have discovered the key ingredients for life on Earth present on an asteroid.
Water and organic matter were found during an analysis of a fragment collected from the cosmic rock Itokawa by a Japanese spacecraft.
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The finding adds weight to the theory that life may spread from one planet to another by piggybacking on asteroids and other space debris.
If true, this could explain how life arose here on Earth and would heavily imply that alien lifeforms are present across the known universe.
On top of that, the discovery sheds fresh light on the constantly evolving processes of the universe, scientists said.
“These findings are really exciting as they reveal complex details of an asteroid’s history and how its evolution pathway is so similar to that of the prebiotic Earth,” said team member Dr Queenie Chan of Royal Holloway University in London.
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Itokawa is a 500-metre wide space rock that orbits within the inner Solar System. It’s thought to be made up of debris from a huge space collision.
In 2005, it became the first asteroid from which samples were captured and brought to Earth for analysis.
The Japanese space probe Hayabusa collected two dust samples during its groundbreaking mission, returning them to Earth in 2010.
Scientists have been studying tiny grains of dust from the object ever since.
The team at Royal Holloway conducted analyses of a grain sample known as “Amazon”.
They discovered that Itokawa was destroyed and reformed at least once in its history, and slowly incorporated water and organic matter over time.
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That matter originated on the asteroid itself, rather than arriving as part of a collision, suggesting it evolved chemically over billions of years.
The research paper suggests that Itokawa incorporated water and organic materials from foreign extra-terrestrial bodies, just like the Earth.
In the past, the asteroid will have gone through extreme heating, dehydration and shattering due to catastrophic impact, the paper says.
According to the team, it’s the first time organic molecules have been found on the surface of an asteroid.
However, despite this, the asteroid came back together from the shattered fragments and rehydrated itself with water that was delivered via space dust or carbon-rich meteorites.
What’s the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
This study shows that S-type asteroids such as Itokawa, where most of Earth’s meteorites come from, contain the raw ingredients of life.
It adds credence to the theory that the key ingredients for life may have arrived on Earth on meteorites billions of years ago.
“The organic matter is not directly suggesting life is carried on the asteroid,” Dr Chan told MailOnline.
However, “it tells us the asteroid carries the same raw materials that provided initial feedstock for the origin of life on Earth,” she added.
The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
