The Building Blocks Of Life On Earth May Originate From Outer Space

New research pointed out that when some meteorites crashed on our planet, they brought with them tiny bits of extraterrestrial sugar that may contribute to the forming of life on Earth.

For your information, this is not the kind of sugar you use to sweeten your food and beverage. Astronomers discovered traces of sugars that contribute to the forming of life, including ribose, the base of ribonucleic acid, or RNA.

As stated by Yoshihiro Furukawa, the lead author of the study, this was the first time ever, these sugars were found in meteorites. This may encourage a theory that the essential blocks of life on Earth were forged in space billions of years ago and then brought to our planet by meteorites.

According to Furukawa, Japan-based Tohoku University associate professor, we have found evidence of the building blocks of life, including amino acids, proteins’ components, and nucleobases, RNA’s, and DNA’s parts, in meteorites before. And now astronomers have found the missing pieces, sugars.

In this research, Furukawa and his fellow experts studied the powder found on two meteorites, the NWA 801, found in Morocco in 2001, and the Murchison, crash-landed in Australia in 1969.

The two pieces of space rocks are found to be over 4.5 billion years old, meaning they can be older than our planet. Other studies have confirmed that they carried organic compounds, like amino acids.

The gas chromatography mass spectrometry is used to study the samples, which lets the experts put molecules in categories by their electric charges and mass. Ribose was found on both meteorites, with 180 parts per billion on Australia’s, and 11 parts per billion on Morocco’s. Experts also found traces of other types of sugars, including arabinose and xylose.

RNAs are found on all types of life forms and ribose plays an important role in creating them. The major task RNAs do is to copy the genetic information that is stored on DNA and brings that information to the cellular structures that produce proteins that are vital for the survival of human and other life forms.

Other RNAs move amino acids around to aid with the synthesizing process of proteins. Other tasks are to ignite, speed up, or slow down the chemical reactions.

RNA’s role is undeniable as experts believe that it was the carriers of genetic information of the early life forms before proteins and DNA gain their places. As ribose was found on two pieces of meteorites that are around 4.5 billion years old, scientists have reason to believe that life on Earth had the help of space’s sugar to bloom as we see today. However, besides ribose, 2-deoxyribose, DNA’s primary sugar, has not yet been found.

According to Danny Glavin, a co-author of this study, meteorites crash-landed on our planet might have carried more ribose than deoxyribose, explaining why RNA became commonplace before other types of genetic molecules did.

Once OSIRIS-Rex and Hayabusa2 of NASA and Japan return from their year-long mission from space, bringing back samples from the Ryugu and Bennu asteroids, scientists will have more to study.

These asteroids have never got near our planet and have the age of a few hundred millions of years. They could provide evidence of which types of sugar are originated from space.