Photo/Illutration An artist’s rendering of the Hayabusa 2 space probe traveling in space (Provided by the German Aerospace Center)

Researchers have found more than 20 different amino acids, the building blocks of life, in soil samples Japan’s Hayabusa 2 space probe brought back from the asteroid Ryugu, according to sources.

The findings will likely help support the theory that the origin of life on Earth came from outer space.

In December 2020, Hayabusa 2, an asteroid explorer operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, released from above Australia a capsule containing roughly 5.4 grams of soil and rock samples collected from Ryugu.

JAXA’s research team announced in June 2021 that it would distribute those samples to research institutions across the globe to start a full-scale analysis of them.

In their preliminary analysis, researchers found carbon and nitrogen, constituents of organic substances, in the soil samples, raising expectations they may also contain amino acids, which constitute proteins.

Twenty kinds of amino acids make up proteins found in the human body. Of these amino acids, isoleucine and valine, both of which human bodies cannot synthesize, have been discovered in the soil samples, according to the sources.

The sources said the samples also contain other amino acids such as glycine, a constituent of collagen, and glutamic acid, an umami flavor component.

These amino acids are thought to have been abundant on Earth right after it was formed 4.6 billion years ago, but they were lost after the planet was covered in magma.

The latest discovery will likely reinforce the theory that the amino acids that exist on Earth today were brought by meteorites that rained down on the planet after it cooled.

Past analyses of meteorites found on Earth also showed they contain such amino acids, but those may have come from Earth because the meteorites were exposed to the planet's soil and atmosphere while colliding with the planet.

The latest analysis of the samples retrieved from Ryugu, in orbit between Earth and Mars, was conducted without exposing them to Earth's air, meaning researchers confirmed for the first time the building blocks of life also exist in outer space.

Hayabusa 2 is a successor of the Hayabusa space probe, which for the first time successfully landed on a celestial body other than the moon and brought back particles collected there.

No amino acids have been found in samples Hayabusa brought back from the asteroid Itokawa and those from the moon.

Related News