Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu.

ABSTRACT: Organic matter in meteorites reveals clues about early Solar System chemistry and the origin of molecules important to life, but terrestrial exposure complicates interpretation. Samples returned from the B-type asteroid Bennu by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer mission enabled us to study pristine carbonaceous astromaterial without uncontrolled exposure to Earth's biosphere. Here we show that Bennu samples are volatile rich, with more carbon, nitrogen and ammonia than samples from asteroid Ryugu and most meteorites. Nitrogen-15 isotopic enrichments indicate that ammonia and other N-containing soluble molecules formed in a cold molecular cloud or the outer protoplanetary disk. We detected amino acids (including 14 of the 20 used i

SUBMITTER: Glavin DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11842271 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature