JAXA’s landmark Hayabusa2 mission bombarding and collecting samples from asteroid Ryugu is beginning to bear fruit as researchers dig deeper into their analyses. In the latest report they note that they likely found specific probiotic organic compounds, including different types of amino acids.
Amino acids are considered fundamental to the development of life, and there has been a long-standing theory that they arrived on the young Earth from asteroid and meteorite impacts.
That’s why space agencies have launched missions to collect samples from asteroids in order to learn more about their composition, but also to understand if this theory can have a basis.
The findings from the asteroid Ryugu show quite a lot in common with those found in meteorites with traces of “ancient” water, that is, water that existed in space and has not been contaminated by the Earth’s atmosphere.
The next step, therefore, is to understand how this water was created and where the water on Earth comes from.
Very interesting developments are expected once Ryugu’s samples are compared with those brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission later in the year.
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