Material brought back to Earth from an asteroid named Ryugu may provide clues on how the basic building blocks of life ended up on Earth.
How the building blocks required for all life on Earth got here remains a subject of debate among scientists, but asteroids bringing them here has long been a popular theory.
A new study looking at the 5.4 grams of material the Japanese Hayabusa2 probe returned to earth in 2020 after an eight year mission suggests that theory may hold some weight. The researchers, who hail from Japan and other countries, say they found organic material showing that amino acids, an essential building block for life on Earth, may have been formed in space.
They also say that the material may provide clues to how oceans were formed in the early stages of Earth’s history.
“Volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth's water," the study scientists say.
They further state that it is likely at least some of the volatiles (water and organic material) came from outside of the solar system, but that it is unlikely that it was the only source.
“Ryugu particles are undoubtedly among the most uncontaminated Solar System materials available for laboratory study and ongoing investigations of these precious samples will certainly expand our understanding of early Solar System processes," said the study’s authors.
Scientists will soon have more asteroid material to study. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission collected a sample from a similar asteroid, named Bennu, which will return to Earth in 2023.