NASA Osiris: Looking For Life With The God Of Death
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 12:53PM 
By Maggie Koerth-Baker [Boing Boing]
It's difficult for Dante Lauretta to describe what he's hoping to find on asteroid 1999 RQ36. But there's a good reason for that.
"We don't exactly know what we'll find until we get there," he says. "But we're looking for really carbon-rich viable material that normally doesn't survive passage to the surface of the Earth on a meteorite. We're looking for things that humans haven't ever seen."
Lauretta is the deputy principal investigator for NASA's recently announced OSIRIS-REx mission. It's an appropriately cinematic name for what he and his colleagues are trying to do. Namely, they're hoping to find the origins of life on Earth in space.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "OMG, panspermia!" And you're wrong. That's not really the right way to describe the concept Lauretta and principal investigator, Michael J. Drake, are trying to prove.
The theory of panspermia is about life that already exists—tiny bacteria that travel through the cosmos and then plummet to Earth on a falling star. It hypothesizes that organisms could survive in the cold reaches of space and accidentally immigrate to our planet, where they become Life As We Know It. When you think about panspermia and talk about "the origins of life on Earth," the emphasis is on the "Earth." For research on that, you want the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment.
OSIRIS-REx, on the other hand, is about the origins of life, which happens to be, from our perspective, on Earth.
It's a mandate that feels, at once, a little disappointing ("So, what, no aliens then?") and astoundingly ambitious. OSIRIS-REx is trying to answer the questions that panspermia just sort of shrugs at. How did life form? What prompted organic molecules to stick together, form chains, and become the proteins that build everything from us, to plants, to tiny bacteria? Drake and Lauretta have a theory for that, and they think they'll find evidence to support it on asteroid RQ36.
Like a Rock
Today, NASA describes RQ36 as a near-Earth asteroid. But the point, for Drake and Lauretta, is that this wasn't always the case. At least, that's what they think. Because RQ36 is one of the near-Earth asteroids that could, potentially, hit our planet at some point in the far future, it's been studied extensively by other researchers. Thanks to that telescope data, scientists have learned a few things about this little object in space. They know that it is likely to be less of a rock than a rubble pile—a cluster of debris, bound together by its own gravity. They also know that rubble is dark. Very dark. From spectrographs at three different telescopes, they've found that only 3% of the sunlight that hits the surface of RQ36 gets reflected back. It's the darkness that excites Drake and Lauretta.
"We really think that dark asteroids are possibly carbon rich. We suspect that they're either extinct comets, or asteroids that come from the outer main asteroid belt," Lauretta says.
If RQ36 comes from the far reaches of the asteroid belt, it could hold something special—simple organic molecules that haven't been heated and changed by the process of planet-making. Basically, it could provide a glimpse of the organic building blocks that were formed out of the birth of stars back at the dawn of our Solar System. We could be talking about amino acids humans have never seen before. Like the bacteria of panspermia, they might have fallen to Earth as part of a meteor, where they started to bond together and kick-started the development of life.
Dust to Dust
Although OSIRIS-REx will likely mark the first time humans send a probe to visit a dark asteroid and return with samples, Drake and Lauretta aren't the first people to come up with this idea. In fact, the European Space Agency even considered a similar mission, Marco Polo, that was aimed at doing basically the same thing. The key difference is that OSIRIS-REx has been approved for funding and will launch in 2016, while Marco Polo languishes.
It's also possible that the theories about dark asteroids will turn out to be wrong. One of the interesting things about OSIRIS-REx, according to Dante Lauretta, is that it will give astronomers an opportunity to test the accuracy of the assumptions they make based on spectrograph data. In particular, asteroid RQ36 is considered a small object—about 580 meters in diameter. That makes it difficult to collect clear spectrographic information. So far, nobody's found direct evidence of carbon on the asteroid, Lauretta said. There's a risk that OSIRIS-REx will have more to teach us about the way we study the stars than about the origins of life.
And, even if it does bring back previously unseen molecules, OSIRIS-REx will still leave some questions hanging. For example: If the molecules of life came from space, how did they survive the trip to Earth?
The whole reason no human has ever seen the molecules OSIRIS-REx is looking for is that those molecules aren't likely to make it through our atmosphere unchanged. There's reason to suspect that they could, under the right conditions. But it's really an open question that's difficult to answer without knowing what, exactly, the molecules in question are.
"We don't really know how they would have survived to the surface of the Earth in the early days," Lauretta says. "There are models for the survival of compounds from an impact, where some fraction could survive. But they don't survive as intact samples. Instead, they would fragment into tiny dust particles. The idea is that those dust particles would be something that could start to form life."
Reader Comments (3)
www.superpopular.net is a professional wholesale electronics china transportation company, it is mainly the operation of the project are: wholesale fashion watches, china Wholesale Jewelry, 925 sterling silver jewelry, China Wholesale Bags, wholesale consumer electronics, women's wrist watches, wholesale 925 Silver Jewelry, etc. Various kinds of china wholesale and Wholesale Electronics products, let you use cheap price to buy more of high quality Chinese products, you still don't hurry up to?
In case you have any louis vuitton speedy 25 in a crease it really is fake. If you discover any "LV" crooked or within the stitch it is fake. Louis Vuitton has a passion for perfection for each of their handcrafted purse or handbag given that the 1850s. They cautiously design where the LV should be place on the bag and also the LVs are always positioned on the louis vuitton speedy 35 with balance.In case you have any LV monogram in a crease it's fake. In case you discover any "LV" crooked or inside the stitch it's fake. louis vuitton speedy sale has a passion for perfection for every of their handcrafted purse or louis vuitton speedy 40 since the 1850s. They very carefully style exactly where the LV must be place on the bag and also the LVs are often positioned on the bag with balance.But in general louis vuitton, men and women will not connect diaper bags with fashion, due to the fact diaper bags primarily concentrate on the practicability, perhaps some of them are really practical louis vuitton sale but without the sense of beauty. As the modern day individuals, we really should change in addition to the time change, if the designers could combine the practical points with aesthetic points louis vuitton speedy mini that could be excellent. Louis Vuitton monogrammed diaper bags are so wealthy louis vuitton speedy function and ornamentation that these handbags had turn into the women's louis vuitton saleindispensable attachment.But lots of people like myself want to go treasure hunting and appear for handbags at a far more reasonable cost. Areas like Auction, eBay as well as other on-line stores have a lot of listing of handbags and purses of all of the designer brand names you can assume of and out with the several every day listings, a portion of them are fake replicas louis vuitton speedy 45. Some of the listings are actually great offers that folks just can't miss. Anyway please read via the lists below to learn some things about this one and only 1, distinctive designer brand handbag so that it is possible to spot a treasure and scope out the fakes, make a fun shopping knowledge louis vuitton speedy 30.But lots of people like coach purse outletmyself need to go treasure hunting and look for handbags at a more reasonable price tag. Locations like Auction, eBay and other on the internet stores have a lot of listing of handbags and purses of all the designer louis vuitton speedy damier brand names it is possible to assume of and out with the a lot of day-to-day listings, a portion of them are fake replicas. Some of the listings are really good offers that men and women louis vuitton speedy monogram just cannot miss. Anyway please read by means of the lists below to learn a few points about this 1 and only 1, special designer brand handbag so that you can spot a treasure and scope out the fakes, make a entertaining shopping experience.
The asking price of wholesale cheap replica Louis Vuitton Handbags is often from one or two dollars to get simple duffel plus garment baggage. Or they usually are several tons or thousands for quite a few top make collections a bag. Not surprisingly you can certainly make sure quality goes with the very low prices of your wholesale cheap lv bags bought. For a person's wholesale purse needs, choose from many of the websites presenting competitive selling prices, quality products and solutions, and punctual delivery. Out of casual item louis vuitton 2011 spring collection bags so that you can woven, and also embossed set strap baggage, to creator inspired baggage and day time bags, you will see wholesale affordable handbags a satisfaction. Wholesale handbags is often classified within several styles. Based to the materials made use of, their performance or practice, and by gender with users, LV Cruise 2011 handbags are available endless styles and models.