Scientists Just Found DNA’s Building Blocks in Asteroid Bennu – Could This Explain Life’s Origins?
Japanese scientists detected all five nucleobases — building blocks of DNA and RNA — in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission brought back 121.6 grams of asteroid Bennu,
Asteroid Bennu samples found to contain five nitrogenous bases crucial to supporting life
Asteroids, small airless bodies within the inner solar system, are theorized to have contributed water and chemical building blocks of life to Earth billions of years ago. Although meteorites on Earth come from asteroids,
NASA's Bennu samples contain life's building blocks, including amino acids and DNA/RNA nucleobases
Samples contain all five nucleobases of DNA and RNA, supporting theory that asteroids may have seeded Earth with life's essential ingredients.
Life's building blocks in Asteroid Bennu samples
Scientists detected all five nucleobases -- building blocks of DNA and RNA -- in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.
Building blocks of life discovered on asteroid Bennu
The building blocks for organic matter have been discovered on the asteroid Bennu, as deatiled in a new study in the journal Nature Astronomy. The research gives new insight into how life originated on Earth and where we might find it elsewhere in the universe.
Basic Building Blocks of Life Found on Asteroid Bennu
Analyzing a sample from an asteroid named Bennu reveals the chemicals necessary to form DNA and RNA.
Samples from asteroid Bennu include life's building blocks
Rock and dust samples brought back from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu contain organic matter, including amino acids and all five DNA and RNA bases, as well as salts that formed early in the history of Bennu's parent body.
In NASA asteroid samples, scientists discover key building blocks of life
In samples NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists have discovered of organic compounds, including key building blocks of life like amino acids.
Nature3y
ribonucleic acid / RNA
and a nitrogenous base. Adjacent ribose nucleotide bases are chemically attached to one another in a chain via chemical bonds called phosphodiester bonds. Unlike DNA, RNA is usually ...
Nanowerk8mon
Cytosine in DNA and RNA: Functions, Modifications, and Applications
This discovery, along with the identification of other nitrogenous bases, laid the foundation for our understanding of DNA and RNA structure. Cytosine can be synthesized chemically or isolated ...
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The building blocks for life found in Asteroid Bennu samples
The study of asteroid samples is a highly lucrative area of research and one of the best ways to determine how the Solar ...
Nature3y
The Information in DNA Is Decoded by Transcription
This process is called elongation. Three of the four nitrogenous bases that make up RNA — adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G) — are also found in DNA. In RNA, however, a base called ...
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Life’s building blocks in Bennu samples
Among the findings, the Japanese contributors detected all five nitrogenous bases, molecules required for building DNA and RNA, supporting the theory that asteroids could have brought the ...