Meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey home contains ‘extraterrestrial’ amino acids

A meteorite weighing more than 2 pounds (1 kilogram) that crashed onto the roof of a New Jersey house two years ago may shed light on ancient water in the solar system.

Observers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania fireball floating in the sky During daylight hours on July 16, 2024. As the object whizzed by just south of the Statue of Liberty, it caused a sonic boom felt by residents of New York City and New Jersey.

The demonstration came from a space rock estimated to be the size of a heavy airplane bag and passing through Earth’s atmosphere at 32,000 miles per hour (14.4 kilometers per second).

Unlike some meteorites, this space rock was particularly brittle and shattered about 22 miles (35.4 kilometers) above the ground. Newark Liberty International Airport’s Doppler weather radar detected a patch of cloud falling from Staten Island to New Jersey.

Only one fragment was recovered, and that was because it penetrated the ceiling of the master bedroom of a home in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

The collision did not cause any injuries, and the homeowners quickly put on disposable gloves and collected black bits and dust from the bedding and carpet using aluminum foil and glass jars, said Peter Jenniskens, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

Jenniskens is the lead author of a study published Wednesday in the journal. Science Developments This detailed the analysis of the Hillsborough meteorite.

Jenniskens said the homeowners also patched the roof of their house before it rained that evening; This is a crucial step because the brittle meteor is porous and draws water from the air, Jenniskens said.

Such quick thinking prevented the meteorite from becoming excessively contaminated. Scientists managed to study the object. Analysis revealed that it was a rare, primitive type of meteorite that provided a window into the early solar system.

Study co-author Dr. “We detected a complex set of amino acids, the basic building blocks of proteins, in the water cores of the Hillsborough meteorite,” said Danny Glavin.

“Many of the amino acids detected at Hillsborough are rare or not present in life on Earth, so their origin is truly extraterrestrial.”

A salty, cosmic time capsule

Detailed analysis of the Hillsborough meteorite showed that it is a CM-type carbonaceous chondrite. C stands for carbonaceous, while M represents the Mighei meteorite, a carbonaceous chondrite that fell in Ukraine in 1889.

These space rocks are the remnants of rocky bodies floating around in the early days of the solar system and contain hydrated minerals and organic compounds.

There are two types of primitive CM asteroids (CM1 and CM2), and the biggest difference between them is how much water changes their composition while attached to a larger asteroid.

Researchers classified the Hillsborough meteorite as CM½ because it exists as an intermediate between the two types. This marks only the second time the example has witnessed a CM½ meteorite crashing into Earth, but it is the first time researchers have been able to study such a pristine sample, Jenniskens said. Jenniskens said similar meteorites that fell in Indonesia in 2020 fell into mud.

“This is the first CM-type asteroid to contain fragments of rock that preserve the surface of the original asteroid,” Jenniskens said via email. “We have a truly unique window here into the physical properties of the host asteroid.”

The Hillsborough meteorite may belong to a larger space rock that once orbited the inner asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

“Some time ago, a major asteroid family was formed in a large collision, and about 6 Myr ago a smaller collision destroyed one of these asteroids, and a piece of it reached near-Earth orbit,” Jenniskens said. he wrote. “This piece experienced hot/cold cycles due to its rotation in sunlight and broke apart about 200,000 years ago. Then it still took that long for Earth to reach its small target.”

Researchers detected high amounts of sodium, likely from icy brines on the original asteroid. As water evaporated on the space rock, it left behind concentrated salt minerals that could form molecules vital to life as we know it, according to the researchers.

The team also detected organic carbon and complex amino acids.

“There are hundreds of amino acids in this meteorite, the majority of which do not occur naturally on Earth,” Glavin wrote in an email. “The amino acid group at Hillsborough was even more diverse than those found in pristine samples brought back from carbon-rich asteroids.” bennu and Ryugu.”

Researchers are trying to identify salt minerals within the Hillsborough meteorite and see how they compare to those identified in samples collected from Bennu and Ryugu in 2000. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2020 and Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission respectively in 2019.

Fragments of the Hillsborough meteorite are on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

We deliver the materials needed for life

Primitive carbonaceous chondrites are believed to be a type of space rocks that collided with the early Earth and provided organic material.

Glavin said the Hillsborough meteorite “provides further evidence that the meteorite that provided organic material to the first Earth may have been an important source of organic molecules necessary for the origin of life.”

Peter Brown, a professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Western University in London, Ontario, said the presence of salt water on the asteroid was very significant, noting that it was left over from some kind of “percolated water or ice.” Brown was not involved in the research.

Salt water is a really powerful type of indica It explained how water moves, evolves, and especially how it reacts with organics,” Brown told CNN.

“Anything we can learn about how water modified this type of primitive meteorite is extremely important to astrobiology and early biology on Earth.”

Water may have been preserved for long periods beneath the surface of the Hillsborough meteorite’s parent asteroid, he said.

Meteorites like the Hillsborough meteorites contain the chemistry of the early solar system, Brown said, because they couldn’t withstand much heating even though they were exchanged with water. Holding a meteorite feels like crumbling soil or clay rather than solid rock; This reflects its lack of exposure to heat and has a better chance of preserving a snapshot of how water interacts with minerals and organic matter, he added.

Quick and knowledgeable actions by homeowners led to the detection of salt water in the first place, Brown said. The rain likely caused additional meteorite fragments to fall apart as they fell outside.

The homeowners quickly connected with study co-author Mike Hankey at the American Meteor Society, who guided them through preserving the sample and minimizing contamination.

“We immediately realized that what we had experienced was incredibly rare and felt a responsibility to preserve the meteorite for the scientific community,” the hosts, who wished to remain anonymous to protect their privacy, shared via email. “It’s still surreal to think that this meteorite traveled through space for millions of years before ending its journey back home. The whole experience was incredible, and we’re honored to have played a small part in advancing scientific understanding through its work.”

Report doorbell or dashcam video potential fireball sights It could help researchers track and collect meteors and ultimately improve their understanding of how the solar system evolved.

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