A teaspoon-sized sample of a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid could be the key to revealing the origins of life on Earth.The black dust-like specimen, taken from asteroid Bennu, is being examined by Natural History Museum (NHM) scientists.It could help hold vital clues to the formation of the planets and our solar system, according to experts.Professor Sara Russell, senior research lead at the NHM, said: "It also, we think, contains minerals like clays that trap loads of water, so it might contain loads of water and that could tell us how the Earth got to be a watery habitable planet."Source: PA
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:05 (upbeat music)
00:07 (upbeat music)
00:10 (upbeat music)
00:12 (upbeat music)
00:17 (upbeat music)
00:23 (upbeat music)
00:27 (upbeat music)
00:32 (upbeat music)
00:38 (upbeat music)
00:41 - We're hoping that it contains fragments of dust
00:47 that was around before the Earth was around.
00:50 It's also, we think, contains minerals like clays
00:54 that trap loads of water.
00:56 So it might contain loads of water
00:58 and that could tell us how the Earth got to be
01:02 a watery, habitable planet,
01:04 'cause we think that asteroids like Bennu
01:05 might have impacted the early Earth
01:08 and provided this water on its surface.
01:11 Also, we think that it might contain several percent
01:15 of carbon, which might be in the form of organic carbon.
01:17 So we need to investigate that further,
01:19 but it could be that asteroids like Bennu
01:21 also provided the nutrients that were needed
01:24 for life to flourish on Earth.
01:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]