Essential molecules for life may have been 'delivered' to Earth from space

The building blocks for life on Earth may have actually come from outer space, according to a new discovery by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Scientists found a number of organic molecules in samples from the asteroid Ryugu, collected in 2019. The molecules include uracil, a building block for RNA, as well as niacin, which is important to metabolism, ScienceAlert writes. "These molecules on Ryugu were recovered in a pristine extraterrestrial setting," said lead author of the study Yasuhiro Oba of Hokkaido University. "It was directly sampled on the asteroid Ryugu and returned to Earth, and finally to laboratories without any contact with terrestrial contaminants."

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Devika Rao, The Week US

 Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.