The nitrogen in the gum was found to be in nitrogen heterocycles, which are the building blocks of nucleobases in DNA and RNA ...

See multiple views from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft's touching down on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi U./Rikkyo U./Nagoya U./Chiba Inst. Tech./Meiji U./U. Aizu/AIST ...

The Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders — previously known as Annual Tables — reveal the leading institutions and countries/territories in the natural and health sciences, according to their output in ...

ABSTRACT: This paper is our evaluation of the astrobiological significance of recent findings secured using the James Webb Telescope on the “biomarker” composition in the atmosphere of the Earth-like ...

Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based observations indicate that ...

The ultimate destination for the lunar and many other solar system samples is the astromaterials laboratory at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, where a technician examines particles of a comet returned ...

See multiple views from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft's touching down on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Credit: JAXA/U. Tokyo/Kochi U./Rikkyo U./Nagoya U./Chiba Inst. Tech./Meiji U./U. Aizu/AIST About Our Ads ...

Life on Earth relies on molecular building blocks to make DNA and proteins. Scientists have long wondered how prevalent these precursors were at the birth of our solar system. A sample of dust and ...

Microscope image of one of the small fragments of asteroid 162173 Ryugu studied by scientists at the Advanced Photon Source. This fragment is roughly 400 microns in diameter, or about the width of six ...

Last year, researchers excitedly announced that they had found two organic compounds essential for living organisms in samples retrieved from a distant asteroid called Ryugu. The Japanese Space Agency ...

A recent study in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science threw cold water on the idea — the microbes on Ryugu almost certainly came from Earth rather than outer space. They learned this because ...