The first results of the initial description of the sample of the asteroid Ryugu returned by the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft published in the British online journal Nature Astronomy, December 21, 2021. / JAXA
The first results of the initial description of the sample of the asteroid Ryugu returned by the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft published in the British online journal Nature Astronomy, December 21, 2021. / JAXA
Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft ‘Hayabusa 2’ has discovered “amino acids”, the source of life, in sand samples brought to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu, it reported on Monday Japanese financial newspaper The Nikkei, which was the first time. that humans have discovered amino acids, substances that make proteins, outside the Earth.
More than 20 types of amino acids have been detected in samples that Hayabusa 2 brought to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu in late 2020, the newspaper quoted a Japanese education ministry official as saying. The official noted that amino acids, one of the first organic molecules to appear on Earth, are very important substances for living things and could provide clues to understanding the origins of life.
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft brought samples to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu in late 2020. / JAXA
Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft brought samples to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu in late 2020. / JAXA
Probe on the origin of life
Hayabusa 2 left Earth in 2014 and reached its stationary position on the asteroid Ryugu in June 2018 after traveling 3.2 billion kilometers in an elliptical orbit around the sun for more than three years. He finally touched the asteroid twice the following year and collected his first underground samples of an asteroid.
In December 2020, a capsule that had been carried on a six-year mission by Hayabusa 2 delivered more than 5.4 grams of surface material to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu 300 million kilometers away.
Launched in 2021 with a full sample research, the Ryugu probe was conducted jointly by JAXA and Japanese research institutions, including the University of Tokyo and the University of Hiroshima.
In order to unravel the mysteries of the origin of the solar system and life, the probe suggested the presence of water and organic matter with a prior analysis of the samples.
Although it is still unknown how amino acids arrived on Earth in antiquity, one theory is that they were carried by meteorites with amino acids detected in a meteorite found on Earth, while another possibility is that they were bound to Earth. .
This time, Hayabusa 2 delivered the materials underground without being exposed to the outside air after collecting samples that had not been weathered by sunlight or cosmic rays, showing for the first time that amino acids exist in an asteroid in the space.