PANSPERMIA: Asteroid Ryugu Contains All 5 DNA and RNA Building Blocks, Study Shows.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa2 mission in 2014, sending a spacecraft on a 186-million-mile (300-million-kilometer) journey to Ryugu. One year after reaching the asteroid in 2018, the spacecraft landed on its surface and fired a projectile into it. Hayabusa2’s “catcher” then gathered up the chunks of ejected debris, and the spacecraft carried them back to Earth.

Astronomers have run many analyses of the Ryugu samples since then, but Koga and his colleagues are the first to find all five nucleobases inside them. The researchers studied samples that were collected and curated under strictly controlled conditions and conducted their analysis in a cleanroom to further prevent contamination. They also ran tests to confirm the molecules formed on Ryugu rather than coming from Earth.

Fascinating.