For the first time, scientists discover the building blocks of life an asteroid. More than 20 amino acids have been discovered by Japanese researchers on the space rock Ryugu, which is more than 320 million kilometers from Earth.
In one paper published on Friday, a group of researchers led by Okayama University in western Japan said they had discovered "amino acids and other organic matter that could give clues to the origin of life on Earth."
In 2014, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA launched the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to visit asteroid Ryugu. It arrived at the asteroid in June 2018 and studied it from orbit for over a year. Hayabusa 2 even dispatched four rovers to the asteroid s surface.
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