NASA finds traces of bio-essential sugar in meteorites

22 Nov 2019

NASA finds traces of bio-essential sugar in meteorites

NASA finds traces of bio-essential sugar in meteoritesResearchers from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have found traces of bio-essential sugars in meteorites that crashed into Earth billions of years ago.

They analysed three meteorites, including one that landed in Australia in 1969 and dates back billions of years.
 	Meteorites are part of asteroids that break away from the parent body fall down into the Earth's atmosphere.
 	This discovery suggests that there are chemical reactions happening within the asteroids that can create some of the elements essential to life.
 	The researchers found sugars like arabinose and xylose, but most importantly, ribose.
 	Ribose plays a very important part in our human biology. It exists in our RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) and delivers messages from our DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) to help build proteins for our bodies.
 	It is also very delicate in its structure. Therefore, it is remarkable that it could be detected in such ancient material.

The extraterrestrial sugar might have contributed to the formation of RNA on ancient Earth which possibly led to the origin of life.

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Researchers from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have found traces of bio-essential sugars in meteorites that crashed into Earth billions of years ago. They analysed […]

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