Asteroid Bennu and the Ingredients for Life - Episode 80

What can a few grains of asteroid dust tell us about the origins of life on Earth?

In this episode, Host Rick Crandall talks with NASA astrochemist José C. Aponte about the organic chemistry preserved inside asteroid Bennu. From NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission to amino acids, nucleobases, and the mystery of life’s left-handed molecules, Aponte explains how scientists search for clues to our chemical origins. This one is going to be cool!

What you’ll hear:

• Why NASA traveled to Bennu: Pristine asteroid material offers evidence that meteorites altered by Earth’s environment cannot.
• How scientists prevent contamination: A fingerprint can contain more organic material than the tiny Bennu samples researchers analyze.
• What researchers discovered: Bennu contains 14 of the 20 amino acids used to build proteins and all five nucleobases found in DNA and RNA.
• Why molecular diversity matters: Thousands of nitrogen-bearing compounds reveal the complex chemical environment of the early solar system.
• How a mass spectrometer works: Aponte explains how scientists use molecular fragments to identify compounds inside asteroid material.
• The mystery of left-handed amino acids: Life uses almost exclusively one mirror-image form, but scientists still do not know why.
• The search for tryptophan: Researchers found tentative evidence that could represent the first extraterrestrial detection of this complex amino acid.
• What Bennu’s salts reveal: Minerals formed through evaporating water suggest Bennu’s material originated in a different part of the solar system.

Learn More:

• Read the full show notes on the Wings Over the Rockies website
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• Subscribe and leave a review to support the show

This episode is supported in part by United Airlines.