{"id":333690,"date":"2025-12-06T16:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333690\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:30:09","slug":"asteroid-hurtling-toward-earth-found-to-be-teeming-with-building-blocks-of-life-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333690\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid hurtling toward Earth found to be teeming with building blocks of life: researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sugars essential for life were found for the first time alongside \u201cspace gum\u201d on an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, indicating that our universe could be teeming with life, according to new research.<\/p>\n<p>The 74-ton, 1,600-foot-wide asteroid named Bennu, first discovered in 1999 and harvested for samples by NASA in 2020, contains a five-carbon sugar ribose and a six-carbon glucose \u2014 key building blocks of DNA and RNA, according to two studies published in Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy on Dec. 2.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7716263;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37853069\" width=\"1024\" height=\"578\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/200-million-miles-back-earth-116635351.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's depiction of asteroid Bennu.\" class=\"wp-image-37853069\"  \/>An artist\u2019s depiction of the asteroid Bennu which is contains the building blocks for RNA and DNA, according to new studies. NASA \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>The discovery of ribose is particularly significant, as that molecule is needed for RNA \u2014 which operates inside DNA \u2014 a crucial factor in \u201cthe origin of life,\u201d according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41561-025-01838-6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a> in Nature Geosciences from Tohoku University in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll five nucleobases used to construct both DNA and RNA, along with phosphates, have already been found in the Bennu samples brought to Earth by OSIRIS-REx,\u201d Dr. Yoshihiro Furukawa from Tohoku University said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe new discovery of ribose means that all the components to form the molecule RNA are present in Bennu,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A gum-like material never seen before in space rocks was also found in the samples from Bennu, according to the study from NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-025-02694-5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n<p>The substance, which is rich in oxygen and nitrogen, could have been the goo that brought the other molecules together to meld and bring forth life, according to the space agency.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50367107;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37853071\" width=\"887\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/200-million-miles-back-earth-116635325.jpg\" alt=\"An asteroid sample under a microscope with a probe collecting a piece of material.\" class=\"wp-image-37853071\"  \/>An image of the \u2018gum-substance\u2019 discovered on asteroid Bennu, according to a study published in Nature Astronomy. NASA \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>While the bio-essential materials are not evidence of life itself, it is an indicator that the building blocks for life are more common in our Universe than previously thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe finding that the asteroid Bennu contains most amino acids, the building blocks of life-as-we-know-it suggests that these building blocks are common in the Universe,\u201d Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe universe is likely teeming with life in environments that imitate the conditions in the Solar system,\u201d Loeb added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sugars essential for life were found for the first time alongside \u201cspace gum\u201d on an asteroid hurtling towards&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6949,1155,718,79,193,965],"class_list":["post-333690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-asteroids","tag-dna","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}