Sugars essential for life were found for the first time alongside “space gum” on an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, indicating that our universe could be teeming with life, according to new research.
The 74-ton, 1,600-foot-wide asteroid named Bennu, first discovered in 1999 and harvested for samples by NASA in 2020, contains a five-carbon sugar ribose and a six-carbon glucose — key building blocks of DNA and RNA, according to two studies published in Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy on Dec. 2.
The discovery of ribose is particularly significant, as that molecule is needed for RNA — which operates inside DNA — a crucial factor in “the origin of life,” according to the study in Nature Geosciences from Tohoku University in Japan.
“All five nucleobases used to construct both DNA and RNA, along with phosphates, have already been found in the Bennu samples brought to Earth by OSIRIS-REx,” Dr. Yoshihiro Furukawa from Tohoku University said.
“The new discovery of ribose means that all the components to form the molecule RNA are present in Bennu,” he said.
A gum-like material never seen before in space rocks was also found in the samples from Bennu, according to the study from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California published in Nature Astronomy.
The substance, which is rich in oxygen and nitrogen, could have been the goo that brought the other molecules together to meld and bring forth life, according to the space agency.
While the bio-essential materials are not evidence of life itself, it is an indicator that the building blocks for life are more common in our Universe than previously thought.
“The finding that the asteroid Bennu contains most amino acids, the building blocks of life-as-we-know-it suggests that these building blocks are common in the Universe,” Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb told The Post.
“The universe is likely teeming with life in environments that imitate the conditions in the Solar system,” Loeb added.