Ryugu Yields All Five Nucleobases, Space’s Reservoir of Life’s Ingredients
TL;DR
A Nature Astronomy study confirms all five DNA/RNA nucleobases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil—are present in Ryugu asteroid samples, suggesting primitive space rocks can carry the building blocks of life and revealing a correlation with ammonia that points to a novel nucleobase formation pathway.
- All five DNA/RNA building blocks found in asteroid Ryugu samples Boing Boing
- A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu Nature
- Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks, bolstering origin-of-life theories Phys.org
- All 5 fundamental units of life’s genetic code were just discovered in an asteroid sample The Conversation
- Ryugu asteroid sample contains all five key components of DNA, scientists find Space
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