Scientists find mysterious ‘space gum’ ingredients for life on asteroid

Sugars essential for biology have been discovered in a gum-like substance in fragments from the Bennu space-rock.

NASA's $800 million OSIRIS-REx mission collected rocks and dust, called regolith, from Bennu’s surface in 2020 and carried it 200 million miles back to Earth.

The substance has not been seen before in astromaterials and is among research presented in three studies published Tuesday in Nature Geoscience and Nature Astronomy.

The findings suggest that crucial ingredients for life’s chemistry were readily available on asteroids, and these building blocks of life were widespread in the early solar system.

One paper, led by Scott Sandford at NASA’s Ames Research Center and Zack Gainsforth of the University of California, reveals a polymer-like material in the Bennu samples unprecedented in space rocks – something that could have helped set the stage on Earth for the ingredients of life to emerge.

The surprising substance was likely formed in the early days of the solar system, as Bennu’s young parent asteroid warmed.

Scott Sandford said: "With this strange substance, we’re looking at, quite possibly, one of the earliest alterations of materials that occurred in this rock.

"On this primitive asteroid that formed in the early days of the solar system, we’re looking at events near the beginning of the beginning."

NASA said: "Combined with previous detections of amino acids and nucleobases, we see that life’s ingredients were widespread throughout the solar system.

"Scientists identified ribose (used in RNA) and – for the first time in any extraterrestrial sample – glucose, a major energy source for life.

"These sugars join nucleobases and phosphates previously found, demonstrating the full suite of RNA building blocks were present on the ancient asteroid.

"Because OSIRIS-REx samples were collected and analysed free of earthly contamination, these findings give strong evidence that crucial ingredients for life’s chemistry were readily available on asteroids throughout the solar system.

"By pursuing clues about what went on long ago, deep inside an asteroid, scientists can better understand the young solar system – revealing the precursors to and ingredients of life it already contained, and how far those raw materials may have been scattered, thanks to asteroids much like Bennu."