Key building blocks of life found in asteroid samples brought back to Earth

[Elderberry]

BGR By Joshua Hawkins 6/7/2022

Back in 2019, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected samples from an asteroid known as Ryugu. Located nearly 200 million miles from Earth, the asteroid has been a focus of studies for some time. Now, Japan’s education of ministry has shared the findings from the samples Hayabusa2 collected, noting that it discovered key building blocks of life on the asteroid.

Ryugu is a carbon-rich fragment of a much larger asteroid which we believe formed from the dust and gas that helped form our solar system. As such, the age of those materials could give us a solid look at how those materials formed space as we know it. It could also tell us more about what the early solar system looked like 4 billion years ago.

Scientists say that the asteroid is the “most primitive material in the solar system we have ever studied.” (via Space.com) On that asteroid, though, they found the key building blocks of life, amino acids.

More: https://bgr.com/science/key-building-blocks-of-life-found-in-asteroid-samples-brought-back-to-earth/

[Hoodat]

Which amino acids?  Does anyone know?

[Elderberry]

https://www.space.com/asteroid-ryugu-samples-analysis-hyabusa2

The analysis by Naraoka and his team also found more than ten types of amino acids in the samples, including glycine and L-alanine, which are the building blocks of proteins that living organisms produce based on their DNA code.

"We detected various prebiotic organic compounds in the samples, including proteinogenic amino acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons similar to terrestrial petroleum, and various nitrogen compounds," Naraoka said in his presentation. "These prebiotic organic molecules can spread throughout the solar system, potentially as interplanetary dust from the Ruygu surface by impact or other causes."

Scientists have known that CI chondrite asteroids contain amino acids including glycine and alanine since 2001 when an analysis of a meteorite known as Ivuna, which landed in Tanzania 1938, revealed their presence.

[Hoodat]

Technically, amino acids.  But also rather simple organic molecules.