{"id":169258,"date":"2025-12-05T09:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/169258\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:12:19","slug":"mark-kelly-says-this-exciting-scientific-find-raises-questions-of-life-beyond-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/169258\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kelly Says This ‘Exciting’ Scientific Find Raises Questions Of Life Beyond Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired astronaut and current Sen. Mark Kelly<\/a> (D-Ariz.) celebrated NASA<\/a>\u2019s \u201cpretty exciting\u201d announcement on Thursday after the space agency highlighted<\/a> how scientists found sugars essential for life on samples of a near-Earth asteroid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the discovery of the sugars glucose and ribose \u2014 which NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft gathered from the asteroid Bennu \u2014 did not indicate \u201cevidence of life,\u201d the findings show that \u201cbuilding blocks of biological molecules were widespread throughout the solar system,\u201d according to NASA.<\/p>\n

The space agency noted that the sugars deoxyribose \u2014 which wasn\u2019t found in the samples \u2014 and ribose are key building blocks of DNA and RNA on Earth.<\/p>\n

Yoshihiro Furukawa, a professor at Japan\u2019s Tohoku University who led the team of researchers that made the findings<\/a>, said that the discovery of ribose means \u201call of the components\u201d that form RNA are present in the asteroid.<\/p>\n

Kelly, in a clip shared <\/a>on social media<\/a>, said the findings spark \u201clarger questions about life in the universe\u201d and underscore the importance of federal funding for scientific research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know for sure if there\u2019s life anywhere else, but when you think of the probability, the statistical probability that it exists, maybe there\u2019s life out there,\u201d said Kelly, who recently joked on Stephen Colbert\u2019s late-night show<\/a> that the U.S. found aliens, but it became a problem when they asked to go to our leader.<\/p>\n

NASA revealed they found some of the building blocks of life in a sample brought back from an asteroid (on a @UArizona<\/a>-led mission, by the way).<\/p>\n

It raises some big questions about whether there\u2019s other life somewhere out there in the universe. According to my math, probably. pic.twitter.com\/ZzSPHTuh7t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Captain Mark Kelly (@CaptMarkKelly) December 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Danny Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center and co-investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission, said in a video<\/a> that the discovery makes him \u201cmuch more optimistic\u201d about the search for extraterrestrial life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this means is that these building blocks of life were distributed from the outer solar system all the way into the inner solar system,\u201d Glavin explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were everywhere, ubiquitous, which really makes me more optimistic that not only could these building blocks have enabled life on Earth, but potentially elsewhere \u2014 Mars, Europa, the outer solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n