In addition to all the other chemical bases of DNA and RNA.
Glavin, D.P., Dworkin, J.P., Alexander, C.M.O. et al. Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu. Nat Astron (2025). doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02472-9
Abstract
Organic matter in meteorites reveals clues about early Solar System chemistry and the origin of molecules important to life, but terrestrial exposure complicates interpretation. Samples returned from the B-type asteroid Bennu by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer mission enabled us to study pristine carbonaceous astromaterial without uncontrolled exposure to Earth’s biosphere. Here we show that Bennu samples are volatile rich, with more carbon, nitrogen and ammonia than samples from asteroid Ryugu and most meteorites. Nitrogen-15 isotopic enrichments indicate that ammonia and other N-containing soluble molecules formed in a cold molecular cloud or the outer protoplanetary disk. We detected amino acids (including 14 of the 20 used in terrestrial biology), amines, formaldehyde, carboxylic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and N-heterocycles (including all five nucleobases found in DNA and RNA), along with ~10,000 N-bearing chemical species. All chiral non-protein amino acids were racemic or nearly so, implying that terrestrial life’s left-handed chirality may not be due to bias in prebiotic molecules delivered by impacts. The relative abundances of amino acids and other soluble organics suggest formation and alteration by low-temperature reactions, possibly in NH3-rich fluids. Bennu’s parent asteroid developed in or accreted ices from a reservoir in the outer Solar System where ammonia ice was stable.
But cytosine in particular is interesting because it’s never been detected in meteorites before (with exception of a very recent reanalysis of the Murchison meteorite), and it’s high rate of decomposition has been used by creationists (on this forum, no less) to argue it couldn’t arise naturally or outside of life.
Apparently it can form naturally outside of life, and persist for eons in space, in high enough quantities to be detected in samples returned to Earth.
Yet again I get flashbacks of why Wöhler’s synthesis of urea was important in debunking the “only living things can produce that” nonsense.
Meanwhile, will Orange Man be urged by anti-science and pseudo-science advocates to defund all staff who are analyzing data from the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer mission?
Newsflash: Marjorie Taylor Greene has been named Ambassador to Bennu.
We’re a bit over a week into his speedrun of state collapse and I’ve already given up trying to keep track of all the nutbaggery we are showered with every day. Every time I think it can’t get dumber or more disgusting I’m instantly disproven before my eyes. I just have to turn on the TV.
A plane flew into a helicopter. It’s Biden’s fault. Not kidding. I just saw them say it at the press conference. Biden did it. The Biden administration is to blame for the plane flying into the helicopter.
More specifically, I heard that a woke transgender illegal immigrant Antifa member (having been released from a prison in Congo) was funded by that administration for this nefarious purpose.
Yeah I heard about that too. “Some say…”, and by some I mean a Twitter/X post by someone called “Proud-Dad-TruthSeeker” said it. I didn’t say I believe it. I’m “just asking questions.”
It’s so refreshing, such a breath of fresh air that Trump has made it legal for us to speak about it without us getting canceled, or replaced by DEI hires.