All the essential ingredients to make the DNA and RNA underpinning life on Earth have been discovered in samples collected from the asteroid Ryugu, scientists said Monday.
Cesar Menor Salvan, an astrobiologist at Spain’s University of Alcala not involved in the research, emphasized that “these results do not suggest that the origin of life took place in space.”
However, “with this and the results from Bennu, we have a very clear idea of which organic materials can form under prebiotic conditions anywhere in the universe,” he added.