In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have detected all five nucleobases — adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil — inside carbon-rich meteorites that crash-landed on Earth. These are the essential ingredients of DNA and RNA, the molecules that carry the genetic code for all life.
This marks the first time researchers have confirmed the complete set of life’s chemical building blocks within extraterrestrial material. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, provide strong evidence that the foundation for biology could have originated in space rather than on Earth.
“This discovery supports the idea that the chemistry needed for life can happen naturally in space and then be delivered to planets,” said Dr. Yasuhiro Oba, a co-author of the study from Hokkaido University.
Experts believe these molecules likely formed in icy dust clouds drifting between stars or within the early disks of planet-forming systems. When ancient asteroids and comets bombarded Earth billions of years ago, they may have seeded the planet with the ingredients that led to the first living organisms.
It’s a discovery that blurs the line between astronomy and biology — suggesting that the blueprint of life isn’t Earth’s secret recipe but a universal one written across the cosmos.
Sources: Live science
