Building Blocks of Life Were Found on an Asteroid in Space For The Very First Time

Scientists have found the building blocks for life on an asteroid.

The space rock is more than 200 million miles away from Earth.

The first-of-its-kind detection was made by studying samples from the near-Earth asteroid Hayabusa2.

After collecting 0.2 ounce from the asteroid's surface, the spaceship stowed it in a container and flew it back to Earth.

We might know why the asteroid has a weird shape.

Scientists think that the asteroid got its unusual shape from rapid rotation.

A large amount of carbon-rich organic matter may have originated from the same nebula that gave birth to the Sun and the planets of the Solar System. The asteroid may hold water, according to previous analysis.

The Hayabusa2 mission's initial chemical analysis team found the most primitive material in the Solar System.

(Yada et al., Nature Astronomy, 2021)

The asteroid samples have a chemical composition similar to that of the early Solar System, even though they only reflect a small amount of light.

The leader of the team which looked for organic matter in the samples said that they found several prebiotic organic compounds.

By impact or other causes, these organic molecules can spread throughout the Solar System.

According to Japan's education ministry, sample analysis detected 10 different types, but now there are more than 20. The existence of life on our planet is dependent on the existence of the essential building blocks of life, called mino acids.

A group of 3.3-billion-year-old rocks in South Africa were found to contain organic molecule from space, raising the possibility that some of these life-building molecules first came to Earth on comet. Evidence has been made that asteroids carry stronger molecule.

Kensei Kobayashi, a professor of Astrobiology at Yokohama National University, told Kyodo News that it's possible that the compounds arrived on Earth from space.

It's possible that life could have been born in more places in the Universe than previously thought, thanks to this finding.

More information on the asteroid's formation and composition will be available soon.

The other space rocks are being investigated. The rock sample from Bennu was collected by the OSIRIS-REx spaceship.

Scientists will be able to see signs of organic matter in the sample when it returns to Earth in 2023.

This content is related.

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It may be difficult to find life on Red Planet.

Astrobiologists are optimistic about life on Mars.

The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.