They find molecules of life on the Ryugu asteroid, where a Japanese ship landed

The analyzes of the rock samples collected from asteroid RyuguThey have found molecules of life. Specific uracilone of the four nucleobases that make up the RNAin addition to niacina form of vitamin B3. It is an important discovery to determine The origin of life. And perhaps, in part, confirm that we are aliens.

Surely you remember the Japanese mission hayabusa 2, which took place in 2018, because it is one of the spectacular in history. For the first time, a probe managed land on a 900 meter long asteroid traveling at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour, at 160 million kilometers from Earth. Farther than the distance to the Sun.

This ship deployed 4 small robots, ROVER 1A, 1B, ROVER 2 and MASCOT, which carried out different studies. One of them caused a small explosion to extract rock from inside the asteroid, and bring it back to Earth, in airtight capsules. It took her two years to come back, in 2020.

These samples have now been thoroughly analysed, and the aforementioned samples have been found. molecules of life, the “bricks” that make up a living being. Here you can see the samples, taken from two different places on the asteroid, courtesy of Science Alert.

It is important to clarify that the existence of these molecules of life in the Ryugu, it does not mean that there were living beings there, nor is it proof of extraterrestrial life. In the same way that a handful of bricks on the ground does not become the cathedral of Burgos on its own.

So that there is life they have to get together a large number of very special molecules in some environmental conditions which, for now, are only possible on Earth.

But this important discovery underpins some of the theories that exist about the origin of life.

they had met before biological molecules in others meteors that have fallen to earth. But to get to us they have passed through the atmosphere and come into contact with the ground, so those molecules could be from our own planet.

The importance of hayabusa mission 2 is that the asteroid samples were collected 160 million kilometers from Earthand they were brought back in hermetic capsules. So they are not contaminated by contact with the Earth.

This shows that there are life molecules on asteroids, supporting one of the theories that say that this is how life originated on Earth: with biological compounds that they arrived on asteroids millions of years ago, when the atmosphere did not yet exist. They then interacted with each other in the unique conditions of Earth.

So, technically, the Humans and the rest of the living beings on Earth, we are aliens. At least, in our origin.

Just as interesting is to deduce that, if those life molecules brought by meteorites reached Earth, they also they could have fallen on other planets and other galaxies. So it could have formed life similar to ourselsewhere in the universe.

Following the Japanese mission, NASA also landed on another asteroid, Bennu. He collected samples, but has not returned to Earth yet. When they do, their analysis will help complete this data from the asteroid Ryugu.

Little by little, we are getting more clues about The origin of life. The biological molecules found in the asteroid Ryugu indicate that our origin could be extraterrestrial. And therefore, that life does not have to be an exclusive exception to the planet Earth.