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My name is Danny Glavin.

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I'm an astrobiologist at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center.

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And I'm leading the sample organics
analysis team for the OSIRIS-REx mission.

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So, OSIRIS-REx is NASA's
first asteroid sample return mission.

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It launched in 2016,
rendezvoused with asteroid Bennu in 2018,

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collected a sample from the surface
of the asteroid in 2020,

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and then brought it back to Earth,
where it landed in Utah in 2023.

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And now this sample is available
for scientists to study around the world

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to look for chemicals,
including the building blocks of life,

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which is what our team is interested in.

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So our team, which included
an international group of scientists

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led by our colleagues in Japan at Tohoku
University,

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discovered evidence
for bio-essential sugars, sugar molecules

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essential for life in the samples
returned from asteroid Bennu.

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We actually found six different sugars,
including two -

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ribose and glucose - that are fundamental
for life as we know it.

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The reason that this discovery of ribose
and glucose is so exciting

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is ribose is actually
a fundamental component of nucleic acids,

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it forms the sugar phosphate
backbone of RNA.

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Glucose is is an important
source of energy for all living organisms,

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and this is the first discovery of glucose
in any astromaterial.

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So this is this is truly exciting,
a very big surprise.

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We weren't expecting
to find this in the samples.

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So in order to detect these sugars
essential for life,

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we actually had to take some of the Bennu
chips and crush them up.

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We made a powder.
Kind of like making flour.

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We used about 600 milligrams,
so a fair amount of sample,

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and then we basically extracted it
in water at cool temperatures,

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kind of like making a cold, cold
brew, a cold tea,

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and then extracted the sugars
into that water.

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Then we analyzed the water
by a technique called gas chromatography

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mass spectrometry.

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Kind of a mouthful,
but basically it allows you to separate

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the individual sugars and measure them
and identify them by their masses.

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This discovery
of these bio-essential sugars

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was led by our colleagues
in Japan on the OSIRIS-REx mission

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from Tohoku University,
Hokkaido University, and JAMSTEC.

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We helped them at NASA crush the samples
to provide them with the powder,

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where they did the extractions in Japan
and were able

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to detect these sugars
including ribose and glucose,

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using these gas chromatography
mass spectrometry techniques.

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So this is really exciting.

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This is truly a joint effort to make these
these really important discoveries,

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and I'm proud to say

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that this is really an international team
that made this happen.

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Yeah.

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So this discovery really builds on some of
the earlier findings of the mission.

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When we first started the sample analysis,
we discovered amino acids.

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In fact, 14 of the 20 protein
amino acids found in life.

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And we also found the nucleobases.

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These are the components
of the genetic code in DNA and RNA.

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All five, in fact, and phosphates.

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So we had all the components that
we needed to make proteins and enzymes

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and almost all of the components
we needed to make RNA.

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We have the phosphate and the nucleobases,
but not the sugar.

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And so this discovery of ribose
was actually really critical.

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It filled in that missing
component of this nucleic acid

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that some believe was really needed
for the origin of life on Earth.

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Yeah.

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So what we're learning now
with the discovery of all the three main

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components, the building blocks of life
and the samples from Bennu,

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is that these actually formed
very early on in the outer

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part of the solar system,
4.5 billion years ago.

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You had chemical reactions
inside the asteroid Bennu parent body.

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This icy body with melting and fluid,
salty brines that actually formed

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the sugars and some of these
other building blocks of life.

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And then the parent body
was flung into the inner

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solar system, into the asteroid belt,
where it was eventually disrupted

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and reaccreted to have what we now have,
asteroid Bennu, a rubble pile.

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What this means is that these building
blocks of life were distributed

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from the outer solar system
all the way into the inner solar system.

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They were everywhere, ubiquitous,
which really makes me more optimistic

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that not only could these building blocks
have enabled life on Earth,

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but potentially elsewhere, Mars, Europa,
the outer solar system.

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I'm becoming much more optimistic
that we may be able to find life

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beyond Earth,
even in our own solar system.

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So I just want to make it clear
that even though we found

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all of the chemical building blocks
to make proteins and nucleic acids,

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we haven't found evidence
for life itself in Bennu.

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We don't see nucleic acids
or large polymers.

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And this actually opens up
a whole new area of research.

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And the question is why?

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Why didn't we have more chemistry
leading to the origin of life

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happening inside this giant parent body?

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Did we not have enough time to form them?

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Or were the temperatures too cold?

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What is the answer to that question?

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I think this is going to open up

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a lot of new areas of research for folks
to try to figure out,

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why didn't these building blocks advance

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to something more complex inside
this giant asteroid parent body?

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So life, of

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course, requires the right environment,
liquid water, energy sources,

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but it also requires these fundamental
chemical building blocks.

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And we've already talked about the amino
acids needed for proteins,

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the nucleobases,
the genetic components of DNA and RNA,

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but also sugars, which can act
as an energy source for life.

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We found all three of those in Bennu,

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and we've been looking for them
in other asteroids and meteorites as well.

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So asteroid Ryugu,

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we have samples returned from
that asteroid from the Japanese Hayabusa2

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mission, and we're looking for sugars
in those samples right now.

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One of the challenges is that you need
a lot more sample to analyze sugars.

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They're present

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at much lower concentrations
than the amino acids and the nucleobases.

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And so with the Bennu samples,
we've had the luxury of having more sample

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to work with
to actually target these compounds.

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But right now, 
scientists are actively looking

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for these sugars
in the Ryugu samples as well.

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And I wouldn't be surprised
if we found them there as well.

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It's absolutely crucial that we return

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and bring back samples of pristine
asteroid materials.

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We've got plenty of meteorites
that we know are fragments of asteroids

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littered all over the Earth,
but they get contaminated.

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The first thing that happens is a
meteorite will come through the atmosphere

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and it'll be heated by atmospheric
entry heating, potentially

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thermally destroying
some of these fragile organic compounds.

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And then the meteorite hits the Earth,
and immediately it's contaminated by

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by the soil.

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Bacteria in the soil, organics, water,
which can make it really hard to be able

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to discriminate
between an organic compound

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that's a terrestrial contaminant versus

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an organic molecule
that was actually formed in space.

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So having these pristine materials
from asteroid Bennu and asteroid Ryugu

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is really a precious opportunity.

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We have these samples that were protected
from the atmospheric entry

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heating by the shield.

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They were contained in containers
to protect them

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from the terrestrial environment.

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And so we know that these samples
are clean from contamination.

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Bottom line is, with these pristine
asteroid materials,

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we can trust the results when we detect
these sugars and other molecules.

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We know that they were formed in space
and came from these samples

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and weren't a product of terrestrial
contaminants from the Earth.

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So one of the biggest scientific mysteries
is how we all came to be.

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How did life start on the Earth?

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In order to answer that question,
we go to these asteroids like asteroid

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Bennu and bring back samples to look
for the chemical building blocks of life,

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to try to get clues into
how life may have started on the Earth.

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Of course, with this new research,
we've now found sugars,

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the missing component
of the three that we need for life.

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So we have the amino
acids, the nucleobases,

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and the sugars needed for proteins
and nucleic acids.

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But I think what's really key here is
that we're showing that these compounds

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were widespread throughout the early solar
system, formed in the outer solar system

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and then delivered to the inner planets,
such as Earth and Mars.

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And so I think we're
we're really beginning to understand

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that these chemical building blocks
were not only ubiquitous,

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but were also delivered to environments
on the early Earth and potentially

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other planets that would have enabled
the origin of life.

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And for me, this is really exciting.

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It really makes me more optimistic

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that if life started elsewhere
in the solar system,

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the building blocks were available to do
it, and I think we're going to find it.

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So we found

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ribose in the Bennu samples,
which is a really important finding

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because ribose is an important component
of RNA as the sugar phosphate backbone.

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RNA, some have argued, was actually

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the first genetic material
that started at the origin of life.

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It's called the RNA world hypothesis.

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And that DNA and the protein world
followed subsequently.

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One of the interesting
findings, actually, with the Bennu samples

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isn't what we found,
but what we didn't find.

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We didn't find deoxyribose, which is

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the equivalent sugar in DNA
that forms the backbone of DNA.

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Deoxyribose, we didn't see it above our
detection limits, but ribose was present.

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So I think this supports this idea
that maybe RNA did come first

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because there was more ribose available
as its building block very early on,

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and perhaps DNA and deoxyribose
did come later on in biological evolution.

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Some people consider the origin of life
just a simple nucleic acid like RNA

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that could make copies of itself
and transfer information that way.

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Didn't even require DNA or proteins
or even a cell membrane.

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So this discovery of ribose,
in fact, is really important

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and adds more credibility
to that hypothesis that maybe

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the origin of life
was just a single strand of RNA.

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One of the goals of the OREX
mission was actually to study

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asteroid Bennu, which has been classified
as a potentially hazardous asteroid

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because its orbit crosses Earth's orbit
every now and again.

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And so the mission actually determined
that the threat of impact

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of Bennu on Earth is very low:

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0.037%, 1 in 2700 chance

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of hitting the Earth in September of 2182.

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So, well in the future.

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In fact, there's zero probability

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that Bennu will hit the Earth
in the next 150 years.

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But the other aspect of this mission
that was important, it was actually able

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to touch the asteroid
to see what it feels like.

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During the sampling
we actually sunk in to asteroid Bennu,

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which was quite an unexpected.

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We thought we were going
to kind of springboard off the asteroid.

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So we learned just by touching it

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kind of how it was made up,
but we also returned the samples.

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We have the samples in our lab

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to understand their physical
and chemical properties,

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and all of this information is going to be
really important for designing a mission

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if we ever have to deflect an asteroid
like Bennu in the future so that,

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you know, [it will]
avoid colliding with the Earth.