New Evidence Suggests Earth's Life Came From Space

[mag123]

Researchers just announced the discovery of the nucleobase uracil—one of the building blocks of RNA—in a sample from the asteroid Ryugu.
This isn’t the first time a nucleobase has been discovered in a sample of a space object, but it’s the first time we’ve been able to rule out contamination from Earth as an explanation for its presence.
Scientists look forward to comparing these results to samples from the asteroid Bennu in the near future, which will be returned to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex mission.

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In late 2020, the spacecraft Hayabusa2 returned to from its mission to near-earth asteroid Ryugu. With it, the craft brought back samples from Ryugu, which are still being analyzed and experimented on to this day.

And just recently, that continued analysis produced an exciting result. A research team led by scientists from Hokkaido University in Japan just announced that they detected uracil in the Ryugu samples—uracil being one of the building blocks of RNA.

This is not the first time a nucleobase—the collection of chemical compounds that makes up DNA and RNA—has been found in an object from space. Researchers have been finding evidence of these compounds in meteorites for years.
------ Post added on Nov 10, 2023 at 6:40 AM

 

[Mr Bones]

We already knew that

 

[Nidarshana_k]

bump

 

[mag123]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a43369141/new-evidence-suggests-earth-life-came-from-space/

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If terms like adenine and guanine bring back unpleasant memories of Genetics 101 here's one reason to give the words a second thought: A team of scientists has discovered that these and other DNA building blocks can form in outer space and have been deposited on Earth's surface by meteorites. To reach this eye-opening conclusion, researchers ground up and analyzed a set of twelve meteorites collected from Antarctica and Australia. Within them, the scientists found a treasure trove of molecules that may have played a key role in allowing early forms of life to form. Adenine, which helps make up the rungs of DNA's spiraling, ladder-like structure, turned up in eleven of the meteorites. Guanine, another key building block of DNA, was present in eight. Two of the twelve meteorites also contained something extraordinary—exotic molecules that are so rare on Earth that they prove the DNA building blocks must have formed in outer space. The discovery lends support to the theory that a kit of pre-made parts from meteorites or a comet might have kick-started life on Earth
------ Post added on Nov 10, 2023 at 6:48 AM

 

[kinkon]