"Proving amino acids exist in the subsurface of asteroids increases the likelihood that the compounds arrived on Earth from space," Kensei Kobayashi, a professor emeritus of astrobiology at Yokohama National University, told Kyodo News. The Ryugu findings make the evidence that asteroids carry these molecules even stronger. A 2019 study in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta found organic molecules from space in a group of 3.3-billion-year-old rocks discovered in South Africa, raising the possibility that some - if not all - of these life-building molecules first came to Earth on comets and asteroids. Amino acids are the fundamental building blocks of all proteins and are indispensable prerequisites for the existence of life on our planet. Initially, sample analysis detected 10 amino acid types, but now the number has ballooned to more than 20, according to Japan's education ministry. 6 reasons astrobiologists are holding out hope for life on Mars 'False fossils' littered across Mars may complicate the search for life on Red Planet The 7 strangest asteroids: Weird space rocks in our solar system "These prebiotic organic molecules can spread throughout the solar system, potentially as interplanetary dust from the Ruygu surface by impact or other causes." "We detected various prebiotic organic compounds in the samples, including proteinogenic amino acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons similar to terrestrial petroleum, and various nitrogen compounds," Hiroshi Naraoka, a planetary scientist at Kyushu University and the leader of the team which looked for organic matter in the samples, said at the conference. Unlike the organic molecules found on Earth, the pitch-black asteroid samples, which the scientists found only reflect 2% to 3% of the light that hits them, have not been changed by interactions with Earth's environment, giving them a chemical composition much closer to that of the early solar system. "The Ryugu material is the most primitive material in the solar system we have ever studied," Hisayoshi Yurimoto, a geoscience professor at Hokkaido University and leader of the Hayabusa2 mission's initial chemical analysis team, said while outlining the initial findings at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March. The sample collected from Ryugu was sent back to Earth in an airtight container for analysis.
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