Astronomers discover amino acids in asteroid samples during Hayabusa2 probe

Tokyo, Japan

In another step towards knowing the full picture of the origin of life on Earth, astronomers have discovered amino acids in asteroid samples.

Adding evidence to the notion that various amino acids exist on celestial objects outside of Earth, researchers on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft brought back over 20 types of amino acids from the Ryugu asteroid.

Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aimed to advance asteroid exploration technology.

According to the Japanese education ministry, the amino acids discovered are very important substances for living things and could hold clues to understanding the origins of life.

Living organisms use amino acids to make protein which makes them fundamental building blocks of life.

The Ryugu asteroid, located over 300 million kilometers away from the Earth, contained material dating back to when the solar system was created 4.6 billion years ago.

Since it would not have survived the planet's molten origin, such primordial material cannot be found on Earth.

Although scientists were not able to rule out the possibility that those amino acids had originated from terrestrial sources, amino acids were previously recovered from meteorites that crashed into Earth.

Japan will collaborate with NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe to study and compare samples from successfully recovered samples from the Bennu asteroid.

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