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Scientists Discover Earth Life inside an Asteroid Sample

The article from Scientific American discusses the discovery of life-related organic compounds in samples retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft. These samples, which were returned to Earth in 2020, contain uracil, one of the nucleobases found in RNA, and niacin (vitamin B3), along with other organic molecules like amino acids, amines, and carboxylic acids. This finding supports the hypothesis that life's building blocks could have been delivered to Earth via asteroids, suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for some of the ingredients necessary for life. The presence of these compounds in Ryugu, which has not experienced significant heating or aqueous alteration, indicates that such organic materials might be common in the solar system and could have played a role in the origin of life on Earth.

Read the Full Scientific American Article at:
[ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-life-found-inside-ryugu-asteroid-samples/ ]