when Nasa Scientists who fired a spaceship on the asteroid waited for some opportunity and waited for some opportunity. space I hope that in the laboratory, we want to answer the longest questions of mankind as a rock.
For Danny Glavin, a senior sample scientist, he wanted to solve the constant mystery in his work. Amino acidMolecule to make protein?
His moment arrived almost 10 years later. Glavin and the researcher team surveyed Grit. BenuCarbon It’s made of loose rocksBut what they found threw the curve balls. Rather than supporting one of the main hypotheses that the early solar system prefers left -handed varieties and brought the ingredients to the primitive district.
Glavin said, “We must admit. I was a bit disappointed. ” “I felt that 20 years of research on this laboratory and career was invalidated.”
NASA’s asteroid samples show the main chemistry that can cause life.
Researcher Jason Dworkin has a vial containing a Bennu sample.
Credit: NASA / James Tralie
Many amino acids are provided in two mirror images, whether used in biology or not. Each molecule has a central carbon atom with another atom group oriented oriented to one direction or reverse. This attribute, It is called chiralIt is the same as the left and right hand. They are similar, but if you build them, the thumb will hitchhik in the opposite direction.
In Earth’s life, amino acids are always “left -handed”, sugar, which constitutes the skeleton of DNA, is always a right handle, and a double helix provides signature twist on the right. The left -handed version of these molecules is equally available in unlimited chemical mixes, so the homogeneity found between the two is particularly confusing for scientists.
In fact, if all biological molecules take the opposite form, it can work well. If life can take a different way, why not? Uniform “handle” is a secret component of lifetime recipes, more specifically have How to turn left? Did the prejudice of left -handed amino acids began in space, or did you wake up later on this earth?
“The fundamental problem for all of us is whether life should remain,” said Iris Chen, a professor of chemistry and biotechnology at UCLA, who is not involved in asteroid studies. “Is the universe a villain in our lives, or is biology the result of thinking and opportunities?”
NASA chose carbon -rich asteroid Beneuri to study the chemical origin of life.
Credit: NASA
Scientists initially use the data collected by NASA’s $ 800 million OSIRIS-Rex Mission. See, spectrum analysis, resource identification and security residency explorerAnalyze the “handle” of individual amino acids. Bennu’s mineral sculptures can be older than the 4.6 billion years of solar system. This grain of Stardust can come out Dying star or Supernova It eventually led to creation sun And planets.
Creepy light
They brewed a kind of “Benu tea” that boiled small amounts of rocks and dust in water and mountains to extract organic compounds to study. Then, organic molecules were identified, including 14 of 20 amino acid lives to build proteins that perform genetic guidelines using mass analysis technology. portion Latest results Published in this week’s journal Natural astronomy.
“I have to admit. I was a bit disillusioned with. I felt as if the 20 -year research of the laboratory and my career was invalidated.”
In the last decades, researchers have found this. meteorite -The rock that traveled to the space Crash landing -Mino acids were higher than the right handle near -60 % on Earth. Perhaps the cosmic cancer has delivered a compound that had a chemical reaction near the earth. Deep -sea Form the first cell. The rest is probably evolving.
With the knowledge that cosmic cancer bombed the Earth of EONS, this resulted that scientists believe that the ancient asteroid time capsules will also reveal left -handed amino acids. If the solar system actually had more leftists, the polarization of the universe would have been the cause. In the environment, some favor can be a bigger difference over time.
Scientists believe that meteorites and planetary body collisions may have delivered the origin of life chemistry to the initial earth, including left -handed amino acids.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Concept Image Lab Illustration
But Benu researchers found that the left and right wing were the same. Glavin is now wondering if the previous research on previous meteorites is not valid, and perhaps it can be contaminated when Earth protein falls to the ground. JASON DWORKIN, Project Scientist Osiris-Rex MissionI think there may be other reasons for Bennu to abandon the trend.
“Bennu is an example of a type of future that is too broken to survive on landing on Earth, and is not actually in our collection.
Perhaps the reality is that the design of life was determined by coin flipping. When a successful pattern was established, the template continued through evolution. Protein, enzymes, and small drivers inside the cells fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. If life appears with left -handed amino acids, if you switch to the right handle amino acid later, everything can stop in operation. There is a huge advantage over uniformity. If people are based on the right handle amino acids, they cannot eat and digest plants or animal products based on left -handed amino acids.
Researchers made Mirror version of biological protein The handle amino acid in the laboratory. They function similarly, but it is much harder to destroy. In general, the enzyme that breaks down is useless. Like the hair dryer of international vacation, the tool does not work unless the plug and outlets match.
The diagram of the left -handed amino acid from the meteorite and the right handle version.
Credit: NASA Picture
Considering the meaning of this problem, some scientists expressed concern about the future development of mirror cells in the laboratory. If people are infected with harmful mirror bacteria, the immune system can be defenseless and can not be able to counterattack any kind. Recently written by a biologist group Extensive paper As reported New York Times.
The study continues despite the disappointment of Glavin that Bennu did not offer chiral prejudice. He and his partners plan to study more asteroid samples to investigate the touch of other amino acids.
And there may be silver lining. Some space biologists have proposed using the unbalanced hands of molecules. Biological signature. The uniform mix of two types of mixes in alien samples can suggest that molecules were chemically created without involvement of living things. But one type of excess can be a clue to the life of aliens.
Glavin said, “To be honest, we can actually find life in some ways because this danger is not wrong.” “We can believe that if we have amplification of one or others, there may be biology after that.”
