Researchers have found “cometary organic matter” while examining samples from Ryugu, an asteroid near Earth that was visited by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft in 2018. The mission brought back samples to Earth in December 2020, providing scientists with potentially valuable insights into the origins of life on Earth. Some researchers now believe that ancient asteroid impacts may have seeded the origins of life on Earth. Teams studying the samples have concluded that the sample’s surfaces likely contain organic molecules, supporting this theory. “We propose that the carbonaceous materials formed from cometary organic matter via the evaporation of volatiles, such as nitrogen and oxygen, during the impact-induced heating,” said Megumi Matsumoto, assistant professor at Tohoku University Graduate School of Science and coauthor of the research. “This suggests that cometary matter was transported to the near-Earth region from the outer solar system.”
Melt Splashes
In a study published in the journal Science Advances, Matsumoto’s team found five to 20-micrometer-wide “melt splashes” in the Ryugu samples, which they believe were formed when cometary dust rained down on the atmosphere-less space rock. Within these splashes, they found “carbonaceous materials” that resemble “primitive organic matter.” “The chemical compositions of the melt splashes suggest that Ryugu’s hydrous silicates mixed with cometary dust,” Matsumoto said.
This finding mirrors research at NASA, where scientists are currently examining asteroid Bennu samples collected by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. In an October announcement, the space agency announced that it had discovered the “building blocks of life on Earth” in preliminary samples taken from outside of the spacecraft’s sample collection instrument. However, researchers are still far from being able to conclusively declare that life on Earth originated from organic matter from space. Nonetheless, given the latest results, they have good reasons to be excited. For more information on the discovery, you can read about the Japanese asteroid samples that contain the building blocks for life.
