Japanese scientists say they’ve found all five nucleobases, the “letters” of DNA and RNA, in pristine samples from asteroid Ryugu. JAXA’s Hayabusa2 brought the samples home in 2020.
- A 2023 study had already found one of them, uracil. The new paper in Nature Astronomy confirms all five: adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil.
- Together with earlier meteorite and asteroid finds, it suggests these molecules were common across the early Solar System.
My take
Very cool science. Finding the building blocks is a long way from finding life, though. Letters aren’t a book. Every time we look closer, creation seems more finely put together, not less. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).
God Bless, and Use the Source!
