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'Building blocks of life' from asteroid Ryugu are older than the solar system itself

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https://www.livescience.com/building-blo...tem-itself

EXCERPTS: The study, published Feb. 23 in the journal Science, is one of the first peeks at the samples from Ryugu brought back by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft in 2020...

[...] the carbon-rich asteroid ... contains molecules that are crucial to all known life, including 15 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. These molecules themselves are not alive, but because they are found in all life, scientists call them "prebiotic."

Researchers knew from previous studies of meteorites found on Earth [...] through Earth's atmosphere might harbor such compounds due to contamination. It also wasn't clear whether these molecules could survive on an asteroid's surface or only deep within the asteroid body. In this case, the molecules came from surface dust.

"The presence of prebiotic molecules on the asteroid surface despite its harsh environment caused by solar heating and ultraviolet irradiation, as well as cosmic-ray irradiation under high-vacuum conditions, suggests that the uppermost surface grains of Ryugu have the potential to protect organic molecules," study leader Hiroshi Naraoka [...] That means that asteroids could potentially spread the building blocks of life throughout the solar system.

And according to a second study, also published in Science, the organic materials on Ryugu may even predate the formation of the solar system itself, instead having formed in a primordial cloud of interstellar dust that eventually coalesced into Ryugu's parent body. In other words, many of the ingredients for life may be baked into the solar system from the very start... (MORE - missing details)
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