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All Five DNA and RNA Building Blocks Found in Asteroid Ryugu Sample

Japanese researchers confirmed all five nucleobases in Ryugu samples, supporting widespread presence of life's building blocks on carbon-rich asteroids, as published in Nature Astronomy.

  • Laboratory analyses of Ryugu samples show all five nucleobases, as reported in Nature Astronomy, with samples returned by JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission.
  • To probe origins, the team compared Ryugu with Bennu, Murchison, and Orgueil to map nucleobase abundance and study carbon-rich asteroids’ role in early Earth’s prebiotic chemistry.
  • Chemical analysis showed Ryugu had roughly equal amounts of purines and pyrimidines, notably detecting thymine and contrasting with Bennu and meteorites skewed toward one family.
  • Implications include support for the RNA World hypothesis, as the finding strengthens the idea that ingredients for life may be common in the Solar System and could have been delivered to early Earth.
  • With Ryugu now analyzed, researchers note this makes two sampled carbonaceous asteroids with full nucleobase sets, filling Ryugu's earlier gap after Bennu's full-set discovery.
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42 Articles

Lean Left

The finding by Japanese scientists supports the hypothesis of soft panspermia.

·Bratislava, Slovakia
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Center

Without them, there would be no life on Earth – and they could come from space. A new discovery on an asteroid provides amazing clues.

Lean Left

This confirms the theory of the origin of life.

Center

The samples taken from the Rygu asteroid contain all the databases of DNA and ARN, suggesting that these vital elements of life, already detected on the desired object Bennu, are abundant in the Solar System, transmits AFP which reads a study published in the magazine Nature Astronomy.

·Romania
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astrobiology.com broke the news in on Monday, March 16, 2026.
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