Research
Asteroid Bennu's Sample Delivers Another Surprise
Universe Today · By Evan Gough ·
The Brief
- Researchers compared samples from asteroid Bennu with the Murchison meteorite and measured the amino acid β-alanine in both.
- Using new techniques, they measured the isotopic compositions of the samples and isotopic differences between individual atoms within the same molecule.
- The source reports these measurements as a further surprise from the Bennu sample but does not give the specific results in the excerpt provided.
Why it matters
The comparison of Bennu and Murchison samples, using finer isotopic measurements, bears on how amino acids in extraterrestrial material formed and on what meteorites can reveal about the origins of prebiotic chemistry.
Who’s affected
- astrobiologists
- planetary scientists and meteoritics researchers
- #asteroid bennu
- #beta-alanine
- #meteorites
- #amino acids
- #isotopes
- #astrobiology
Researchers compared the samples from asteroid Bennu with the Murchison meteorite and measured the amino acid β-alanine in both. Using new techniques, they were able to measure not only their isotopic compositions, but isotopic differences between individual atoms in the same…