For the first time, scientists have found one of the key building blocks for RNA on an asteroid in space. The discovery indicates that the blueprints for life may have been brought to Earth from beyond our planet, and that rudimentary forms of life could exist elsewhere in the solar system.

Japanese scientists performed the new analysis on a sample taken from the diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu. The researchers found uracil, one of the five nucleobases that make up our genetic code, along with vitamin B3 and a number of other organic molecules on the space rock’s surface.

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