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The Japanese space agency JAXA has recently confirmed the discovery of two types of organic matter on the surface of an asteroid, for the first time in human history, which may reveal the secrets of the birth of life on Earth.
The researchers performed multiple analyzes of material taken from the category S Itokawa asteroid (silicon or rock), which was visited by the probe of the Japanese Hayabusa mission in 2010.
Space rock is believed to be a ‘chondrite’, a relatively unmodified space rock from the earliest times of our solar system.
JAXA scientists analyzed a 30-micrometer-wide particle, nicknamed ‘Amazon’, to discover its chemical composition and water content.
They discovered the presence of organic matter in both primitive (unheated) and processed (heated) form, in a space of one thousandth of a centimeter.
This presence indicates that the asteroid acquired the elements long after it cooled, and this means that the discovered organic matter has evolved over time, attracting water and other organic elements as the asteroid travels through space.
“The findings are exciting because they reveal details from the history of the asteroid and how the path of matter evolution is similar to that of Earth in the pre-biotic era,” said Queen Hollyay, a researcher at Royal Holloway University in London.
Most of the meteors that illuminate the night sky on earth are of category S, and the latest discovery paves the way for the possibility that meteor strikes may be the cause of the birth of life.
The study of about 900 particles of dust from the asteroid will be compared to materials taken from the asteroid Ryugu, with which it is hoped to understand something of humanity’s big question of how life was born on earth, or whether there is life beyond our planet.
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