Presence of Sugars Essential for Life Found in Asteroid Bennu Samples Collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft
The asteroid Bennu samples that were collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) of NASA still continues to provide more clues to scientists regarding the formation of the solar system as well as the origin of life. Now, the presence of sugars that are essential for life have been found, revealing more details.
Read more about this latest update below.
Asteroid Bennu Samples Show Presence of Sugars
This new discovery of sugars essential for life in the asteroid Bennu samples was found as part of the study led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Japan’s Tohoku University, and the findings have been published in the Nature Geoscience journal. Presence of ribose used in RNA (five carbon sugar ribose) and glucose (six carbon glucose) were discovered in the Bennu samples, and glucose is being spotted for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample. Also, while the discovery of these sugars does not confirm the evidence of life, it is noted that when adding the previous detections of amino acids, carboxylic acids, and nucleobases in the Bennu samples alongside the new discovery, it reveals that building blocks for the existence of life were present widespread in the solar system, including the ancient asteroid.
Speaking more, while the presence of ribose was found, the presence of the DNA sugar – deoxyribose hasn’t been found yet, and this is what carries the genetic information of an organism. Thus, it is now being believed that in the early solar system, RNA could have been more prevalent than DNA. Additionally, the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis which states that DNA is not necessary for the origin of life has also been supported by these findings. To note, this ongoing research is being carried forward by scientists at NASA Goddard, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and multiple Japanese Universities.
Stay tuned for more updates.
