Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3
Simon L. Harley
Heat-producing elements like uranium and thorium are depleted in the lower crust. The geochemistry of crustal rocks suggests ultrahigh melting temperatures are needed to produce this depletion and may also help stabilize the crust.
{"title":"Refining the crust","authors":"Simon L. Harley","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01865-3","url":null,"abstract":"Heat-producing elements like uranium and thorium are depleted in the lower crust. The geochemistry of crustal rocks suggests ultrahigh melting temperatures are needed to produce this depletion and may also help stabilize the crust.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1189-1190"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y
A belt of seaweed has formed across the tropical Atlantic nearly every year since 2011, despite reduction in its extent elsewhere. The causes of this growth are now coming into clearer focus.
{"title":"Tightening the Sargassum belt","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01886-y","url":null,"abstract":"A belt of seaweed has formed across the tropical Atlantic nearly every year since 2011, despite reduction in its extent elsewhere. The causes of this growth are now coming into clearer focus.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1181-1181"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01886-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8
Mayra D. Manrique-Ortega, Henri N. Bernard, José Luis Ruvalcaba Sil
Jadeite is a green jade mineral that forms in unique geological environments. Mayra Manrique-Ortega and colleagues explain its archaeological importance for pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.
{"title":"Mesoamerican beliefs sculpted in jadeite","authors":"Mayra D. Manrique-Ortega, Henri N. Bernard, José Luis Ruvalcaba Sil","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01852-8","url":null,"abstract":"Jadeite is a green jade mineral that forms in unique geological environments. Mayra Manrique-Ortega and colleagues explain its archaeological importance for pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1193-1193"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5
David M. Baker, Mengqiu Wang
Our oceans are changing rapidly, with climate-driven shifts in circulation and nutrient cycles reshaping marine ecosystems in profound ways. One of the most visible and disruptive outcomes is the explosive growth of Sargassum — a floating brown alga that has, since 2011, formed vast rafts stretching thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean. Once largely confined to the Sargasso Sea, where it provides habitat for fish, turtles, and eels, Sargassum now inundates coastlines from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands and Florida. In a new report in Nature Geoscience, Jung et al.1 have identified the source of nutrients fueling Sargassum blooms, which are increasing as a result of climate change.
{"title":"Climate change fuels the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt","authors":"David M. Baker, Mengqiu Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01871-5","url":null,"abstract":"Our oceans are changing rapidly, with climate-driven shifts in circulation and nutrient cycles reshaping marine ecosystems in profound ways. One of the most visible and disruptive outcomes is the explosive growth of Sargassum — a floating brown alga that has, since 2011, formed vast rafts stretching thousands of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean. Once largely confined to the Sargasso Sea, where it provides habitat for fish, turtles, and eels, Sargassum now inundates coastlines from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands and Florida. In a new report in Nature Geoscience, Jung et al.1 have identified the source of nutrients fueling Sargassum blooms, which are increasing as a result of climate change.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1185-1186"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6
Ronald Amundson, Jonathan Sanderman, Kyungsoo Yoo, Maedeh Chitsaz, Anna Abramova, Katerina Georgiou
The radiocarbon content of soil organic carbon (C) is assumed to reflect the carbon’s biological reactivity. Large soil radiocarbon ages are interpreted to mean that the C will have a slow response to environmental perturbations such as the effects of warming on the soil microbial C decomposition rate. Here we show that downward advective transport of soil C is an important process affecting soil C ages, leading to an inevitable increase in radiocarbon age with depth even if the decomposition rates remain constant. Thus, the increasing radiocarbon ages of C with depth do not directly imply a corresponding decrease in C reactivity as a function of depth. On the basis of theory and an independent assessment of soil C decomposition rates, the radiocarbon profiles (and content for a given depth) were calculated for over 3,000 soils in the USA and were compared to observational results based on measured soil radiocarbon. The first-order coherence between the two entirely differing approaches suggests the fundamental importance of transport and the implication that the soil C decomposition rate constant may be relatively invariant with depth. These insights may serve to reduce biases in Earth system models that presently do not match the observed depth patterns in soil C or its radiocarbon content. A reassessment of soil radiocarbon profiles, which shows a strong influence of vertical transport processes, suggests that soil organic carbon is similarly responsive to environmental changes regardless of depth.
{"title":"Neglecting vertical transport leads to underestimated soil carbon dynamics","authors":"Ronald Amundson, Jonathan Sanderman, Kyungsoo Yoo, Maedeh Chitsaz, Anna Abramova, Katerina Georgiou","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01846-6","url":null,"abstract":"The radiocarbon content of soil organic carbon (C) is assumed to reflect the carbon’s biological reactivity. Large soil radiocarbon ages are interpreted to mean that the C will have a slow response to environmental perturbations such as the effects of warming on the soil microbial C decomposition rate. Here we show that downward advective transport of soil C is an important process affecting soil C ages, leading to an inevitable increase in radiocarbon age with depth even if the decomposition rates remain constant. Thus, the increasing radiocarbon ages of C with depth do not directly imply a corresponding decrease in C reactivity as a function of depth. On the basis of theory and an independent assessment of soil C decomposition rates, the radiocarbon profiles (and content for a given depth) were calculated for over 3,000 soils in the USA and were compared to observational results based on measured soil radiocarbon. The first-order coherence between the two entirely differing approaches suggests the fundamental importance of transport and the implication that the soil C decomposition rate constant may be relatively invariant with depth. These insights may serve to reduce biases in Earth system models that presently do not match the observed depth patterns in soil C or its radiocarbon content. A reassessment of soil radiocarbon profiles, which shows a strong influence of vertical transport processes, suggests that soil organic carbon is similarly responsive to environmental changes regardless of depth.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1239-1244"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145699212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x
Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova
{"title":"Publisher Correction: Record grounded glacier retreat caused by an ice plain calving process","authors":"Naomi Ochwat, Ted Scambos, Robert S. Anderson, J. Paul Winberry, Adrian Luckman, Etienne Berthier, Maud Bernat, Yulia K. Antropova","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01895-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 1","pages":"128-128"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01895-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01867-1
Joanne S. Boden, Chadlin M. Ostrander, Eva E. Stüeken
The Great Oxidation Event across the Archaean–Proterozoic transition was one of the most transformative environmental changes in Earth history. However, uncertainties remain about when and where it began. Here we synthesize the phylogenetic record of cyanobacteria and geochemical records of nitrogen and thallium isotopes and find converging evidence for oxygenated bottom waters on marine shelves in the Neoarchaean about 200 million years before the Great Oxidation Event. The O2 was produced by benthic microbial mats, the dominant morphotypes of cyanobacteria at that time. Conditions were sufficiently oxidizing to stabilize nitrate and manganese oxides in sediments. Box modelling shows that micromolar levels of dissolved O2 were attainable in this scenario under plausible Archaean conditions. The rise of O2 was initiated on marine mud according to our synthesis. Productive Neoarchaean shelves may have been more oxidizing at the bottom than the top, consistent with the ‘upside down’ Archaean biosphere hypothesis. The oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere ~2.45–2.30 billion years ago may have initiated in the oxidized bottom waters of marine shelves, according to a synthesis of thallium and nitrogen isotopes and cyanobacteria phylogenetic records.
{"title":"The rise of free oxygen may have initiated on marine mud","authors":"Joanne S. Boden, Chadlin M. Ostrander, Eva E. Stüeken","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01867-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01867-1","url":null,"abstract":"The Great Oxidation Event across the Archaean–Proterozoic transition was one of the most transformative environmental changes in Earth history. However, uncertainties remain about when and where it began. Here we synthesize the phylogenetic record of cyanobacteria and geochemical records of nitrogen and thallium isotopes and find converging evidence for oxygenated bottom waters on marine shelves in the Neoarchaean about 200 million years before the Great Oxidation Event. The O2 was produced by benthic microbial mats, the dominant morphotypes of cyanobacteria at that time. Conditions were sufficiently oxidizing to stabilize nitrate and manganese oxides in sediments. Box modelling shows that micromolar levels of dissolved O2 were attainable in this scenario under plausible Archaean conditions. The rise of O2 was initiated on marine mud according to our synthesis. Productive Neoarchaean shelves may have been more oxidizing at the bottom than the top, consistent with the ‘upside down’ Archaean biosphere hypothesis. The oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere ~2.45–2.30 billion years ago may have initiated in the oxidized bottom waters of marine shelves, according to a synthesis of thallium and nitrogen isotopes and cyanobacteria phylogenetic records.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1202-1208"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145664877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01863-5
Yingjun Zhang, Brian B. Barnes, Deborah S. Goodwin, Amy N. S. Siuda, Jeffrey M. Schell, Dennis J. McGillicuddy Jr., Brian E. Lapointe, Lin Qi, Chuanmin Hu
The Sargasso Sea, at the centre of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, draws its name from the endemic floating brown macroalgae, Sargassum, which provides shelter and habitat for life in the pelagic zone. In 2011, the Sargassum footprint expanded to include the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt in the tropical Atlantic, but little is known about how Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea changed thereafter. Here we use satellite and in situ data to show that Sargassum in the north Sargasso Sea has declined dramatically since 2015. Accompanying this decline is a disruption in local Sargassum seasonal growth cycles, whereby the previously consistent fall-to-winter north Sargasso Sea biomass maxima have shifted to spring-to-summer peaks that mirror those of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt—a result of advection from this latter region. We posit that the north Sargasso Sea decline is due to reduced Sargassum supply from a historical Gulf of Mexico source region, possibly attributable to increasing sea surface temperatures and more frequent marine heatwaves in the Gulf of Mexico. Together, proliferation in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt and decline in the north Sargasso Sea may represent the beginnings of a regime shift in Sargassum distribution. Sargassum biomass in the north Sargasso Sea declined drastically since 2015, co-occurring with related reductions in the northwest Gulf of Mexico and an expansion of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, according to in situ and satellite observations.
{"title":"Dramatic decline of Sargassum in the north Sargasso Sea since 2015","authors":"Yingjun Zhang, Brian B. Barnes, Deborah S. Goodwin, Amy N. S. Siuda, Jeffrey M. Schell, Dennis J. McGillicuddy Jr., Brian E. Lapointe, Lin Qi, Chuanmin Hu","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01863-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01863-5","url":null,"abstract":"The Sargasso Sea, at the centre of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, draws its name from the endemic floating brown macroalgae, Sargassum, which provides shelter and habitat for life in the pelagic zone. In 2011, the Sargassum footprint expanded to include the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt in the tropical Atlantic, but little is known about how Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea changed thereafter. Here we use satellite and in situ data to show that Sargassum in the north Sargasso Sea has declined dramatically since 2015. Accompanying this decline is a disruption in local Sargassum seasonal growth cycles, whereby the previously consistent fall-to-winter north Sargasso Sea biomass maxima have shifted to spring-to-summer peaks that mirror those of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt—a result of advection from this latter region. We posit that the north Sargasso Sea decline is due to reduced Sargassum supply from a historical Gulf of Mexico source region, possibly attributable to increasing sea surface temperatures and more frequent marine heatwaves in the Gulf of Mexico. Together, proliferation in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt and decline in the north Sargasso Sea may represent the beginnings of a regime shift in Sargassum distribution. Sargassum biomass in the north Sargasso Sea declined drastically since 2015, co-occurring with related reductions in the northwest Gulf of Mexico and an expansion of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, according to in situ and satellite observations.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"18 12","pages":"1266-1272"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01863-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145664878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-03DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01857-3
Marcel D. du Plessis, Sarah-Anne Nicholson, Isabelle Giddy, Pedro M. S. Monteiro, Channing J. Prend, Sebastiaan Swart
The Southern Ocean absorbs most of the excess heat resulting from climate change. However, climate projections show a persistent warm summer bias in its sea surface temperatures, indicating a limited understanding of the air–sea heat exchange mechanisms governing this region. Here we examine the impact of storms on the interannual variability of Southern Ocean surface temperatures during summer using in situ observations from underwater and surface robotic vehicles, climate reanalyses and satellite data. We show that synoptic-scale storms regulate summer sea surface temperatures through alteration of the effective heat capacity of the mixed layer and the entrainment of colder water from below. Storms reduce the summer ocean heat gain by limiting solar radiation reaching the surface. This effect is partially offset by a reduction in heat loss due to turbulent air–sea exchange. We also find that interannual variations in sea surface temperature during summer in the Southern Ocean are driven by changes in storm-mean wind speeds, which are linked to the Southern Annular Mode. Our results demonstrate a causal link between storm forcing and sea surface temperature variability, which is critical for reducing warming biases in climate models and improving future climate projections. Storms cool the Southern Ocean surface in summer mainly by deepening the mixed layer, but increased air–sea turbulent fluxes reduce ocean heat loss and partly offset the cooling, according to glider observations, reanalyses and satellite data.
{"title":"Southern Ocean summer warming is regulated by storm-driven mixing","authors":"Marcel D. du Plessis, Sarah-Anne Nicholson, Isabelle Giddy, Pedro M. S. Monteiro, Channing J. Prend, Sebastiaan Swart","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01857-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01857-3","url":null,"abstract":"The Southern Ocean absorbs most of the excess heat resulting from climate change. However, climate projections show a persistent warm summer bias in its sea surface temperatures, indicating a limited understanding of the air–sea heat exchange mechanisms governing this region. Here we examine the impact of storms on the interannual variability of Southern Ocean surface temperatures during summer using in situ observations from underwater and surface robotic vehicles, climate reanalyses and satellite data. We show that synoptic-scale storms regulate summer sea surface temperatures through alteration of the effective heat capacity of the mixed layer and the entrainment of colder water from below. Storms reduce the summer ocean heat gain by limiting solar radiation reaching the surface. This effect is partially offset by a reduction in heat loss due to turbulent air–sea exchange. We also find that interannual variations in sea surface temperature during summer in the Southern Ocean are driven by changes in storm-mean wind speeds, which are linked to the Southern Annular Mode. Our results demonstrate a causal link between storm forcing and sea surface temperature variability, which is critical for reducing warming biases in climate models and improving future climate projections. Storms cool the Southern Ocean surface in summer mainly by deepening the mixed layer, but increased air–sea turbulent fluxes reduce ocean heat loss and partly offset the cooling, according to glider observations, reanalyses and satellite data.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 1","pages":"75-83"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01857-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145664883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01838-6
Yoshihiro Furukawa, Sako Sunami, Yoshinori Takano, Toshiki Koga, Yuta Hirakawa, Yasuhiro Oba, Hiroshi Naraoka, Daisuke Saigusa, Takaaki Yoshikawa, Satoru Tanaka, Daniel P. Glavin, Jason P. Dworkin, Harold C. Connolly Jr., Dante S. Lauretta
Deliveries of organic molecules from space, such as those found in carbonaceous meteorites, have long been hypothesized as a source of the inventory of the first life on Earth. This hypothesis is strengthened by detections of two of life’s fundamental building blocks—nucleobases and protein-building amino acids—in pristine samples returned by spacecraft from the carbonaceous asteroids Bennu and Ryugu. However, life also requires sugars, which cannot be searched for in Ryugu samples due to limited available mass, and their presence in some meteorites is equivocal owing to terrestrial exposure. Here we analyse an extract from a sample of asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and identify several bio-essential sugars, including ribose (RNA sugar) and glucose (metabolism substrate). These sugars complete the inventory of ingredients crucial to life. Their distribution is consistent with that in the condensation products of formaldehyde solution. Given that Bennu contains formaldehyde and originates from an ancient parent asteroid that underwent long-term alteration by aqueous fluids, we postulate that the detected sugars formed in the parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde. This indicates that material with all three components necessary to life could have been dispersed to prebiotic Earth and other inner planets. Samples returned from asteroid Bennu contain bio-essential sugars such as ribose and glucose that may have formed in the parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde, according to a geochemical study.
{"title":"Bio-essential sugars in samples from asteroid Bennu","authors":"Yoshihiro Furukawa, Sako Sunami, Yoshinori Takano, Toshiki Koga, Yuta Hirakawa, Yasuhiro Oba, Hiroshi Naraoka, Daisuke Saigusa, Takaaki Yoshikawa, Satoru Tanaka, Daniel P. Glavin, Jason P. Dworkin, Harold C. Connolly Jr., Dante S. Lauretta","doi":"10.1038/s41561-025-01838-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-025-01838-6","url":null,"abstract":"Deliveries of organic molecules from space, such as those found in carbonaceous meteorites, have long been hypothesized as a source of the inventory of the first life on Earth. This hypothesis is strengthened by detections of two of life’s fundamental building blocks—nucleobases and protein-building amino acids—in pristine samples returned by spacecraft from the carbonaceous asteroids Bennu and Ryugu. However, life also requires sugars, which cannot be searched for in Ryugu samples due to limited available mass, and their presence in some meteorites is equivocal owing to terrestrial exposure. Here we analyse an extract from a sample of asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and identify several bio-essential sugars, including ribose (RNA sugar) and glucose (metabolism substrate). These sugars complete the inventory of ingredients crucial to life. Their distribution is consistent with that in the condensation products of formaldehyde solution. Given that Bennu contains formaldehyde and originates from an ancient parent asteroid that underwent long-term alteration by aqueous fluids, we postulate that the detected sugars formed in the parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde. This indicates that material with all three components necessary to life could have been dispersed to prebiotic Earth and other inner planets. Samples returned from asteroid Bennu contain bio-essential sugars such as ribose and glucose that may have formed in the parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde, according to a geochemical study.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"19 1","pages":"19-24"},"PeriodicalIF":16.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01838-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145665123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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