Scientists have detected alien sugars in Earth-bound meteorites for the first time, providing further evidence that the ingredients needed to kick start life on our planet may have been delivered from space.
The boffins – led by a team at Tohoku University, Japan – analysed powdered samples of two meteorites dubbed NWA 801 and Murchison.
They found several different types of sugars, including ribose – a vital component for RNA – in varying abundances that ranged from 2.3 to 180 parts per billion.
“The research provides the first direct evidence of ribose in space and the delivery of the sugar to Earth.
Some of the compounds contain rare samples of carbon-13, a heavier isotope of carbon-12, suggesting that the sugars are extraterrestrial in nature.