Researchers at NASA and in Japan have found HMT a key ingredient for life trapped inside an asteroid.
Life on Earth is based on organic materials, built on carbon and hydrogen.
These chemicals often also contain oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements.
Formaldehyde and ammonia?
The development of amino acids and sugars often relies upon formaldehyde and ammonia.
However, both these chemicals easily break down in the harsh environment of space.
This led scientists to question how significant quantities of organic material found in asteroids may have formed.
This new study may hold the answer.
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With enough heating, HMT within asteroids containing liquid water could have broken down into formaldehyde and ammonia.
These could, in turn, can react to produce amino acids and other complex organic molecules.
Within living systems, some amino acids are used to make proteins.
These are found in hair and nails, and they regulate and aid chemical reactions.
The presence of organic compounds inasteroidshas been well-studied.
However, the process by which these chemicals were formed remains a question, driving research.
One glass of HMT, on the rocks!
Interstellar ice (containing water and ammonia) can also contain significant quantities of methanol.
Therefore, it would appear that HMT should be common inasteroidscontaining water.
Yet, the chemical has never before been found in asteroids examined under laboratory conditions.
This would explain how researchers would have missed seeing HMT within samples which once contained the material.
Researchers utilized a unique method to extract HMT while minimizing breakdown of the chemical.
The Murchison sample had been stored safely inside a sealed container at the Chicago Field Museum.
Organic materialscan be produced by non-biological processes, as well as by lifeforms.
This finding lends evidence to the idea that complex organic materials may have littered Earth from the sky.
We are now at the cusp of being able to examine material from asteroids in laboratories.
Another, larger sample will arrive from the asteroid Bennu, delivered to Earth by theOSIRIS-REx spacecraftin September 2023.
The secrets these missions will uncover remain a mystery for now.
This article was originally published onThe Cosmic CompanionbyJames Maynard, founder and publisher of The Cosmic Companion.
you could read this original piecehere.
Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companionis also available as a weekly podcast, carried on all major podcast providers.
