Scientists have analyzed Ryugu asteroid samples brought back by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft and found “a rich complement of organic molecules” that are known to be the building blocks of terrestrial life.
The Ryugu asteroid is approximately 348 million kilometers (about 216 million miles) from earth.
A research team from Kyushu University, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), NASA, and other institutions, published their findings in the journal Science on Feb. 23.
According to the study, around 20,000 elementary compositions—consisting of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur—were found, including 15 kinds of amino acids, which are the essential building blocks of proteins.
“So far, the amino acid results from Ryugu are mostly consistent with what has been seen in certain types of carbon-rich (carbonaceous) meteorites that have been exposed to the most water in space,” said Jason Dworkin, a NASA researcher and co-author of the paper….