All the essential ingredients to kick-start #life as we know it have now been found in samples from the #asteroid #Bennu.
Asteroids could have delivered all the prerequisites for life to Earth – and perhaps elsewhere.
In 2020, OSIRIS-REx mission extracted samples from Bennu, an asteroid that was orbiting the #sun between Mars and Jupiter, and returned the samples to Earth in 2023.
Since then, small amounts of the 121 grams collected have been sent out to labs across the globe for analysis, so specialists in detecting each type of biological compound could set to work.
The first studies revealed the presence of #water, #carbon and several organic molecules. Next came the detection of amino acids, formaldehyde and all five of the nucleobases found in #RNA and #DNA, as well as phosphates.
However, this isn’t quite enough to put together the molecules that carry genetic information.
Now, scientists have revealed the presence of #ribose, as well as other sugars, including lyxose, xylose, arabinose, glucose and galactose.
#astrobiology
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506650-asteroid-bennu-carries-all-the-ingredients-for-life-as-we-know-it/
Paper by Furukawa et al. (2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01838-6
