NASA scientists have found the sugars essential to life, ribose (a key component of RNA) and glucose (a key source of biological energy), in samples returned from the asteroid Bennu. This is the first time glucose has been detected in a pure sample from beyond Earth. The scientists note that these sugars are not proof of life, but they do indicate that the chemistry necessary for life was widespread in the early solar system.
In addition, the researchers have discovered a strange, previously unknown substance they have dubbed “cosmic jelly”: a soft, hardened substance that could have formed very early in the asteroid’s history.
In another vital discovery, Bennu contains a large amount of dust left over from the explosions of ancient stars, suggesting that its birth is linked to the earliest stages of the solar system.
