Some space rocks, older than the Earth, are sweeter, finds a new study by NASA scientists
On November 18, 2019, a new study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of finding sugar in the meteorites landing on earth from space. Sadly the sugar cannot be used for coffee as it is arabinose, xylose, and, most importantly, ribose, which plays a vital part in our human body.
In a recent PRESS released by NASA, the sugar is found to be part of the RNA molecules that deliver messages from DNA to build proteins. The study was conducted on three meteorites, including the Murchison Materoite and the NWA 801. They were found in Australia back in 1967 and Morocco in 2001.
Danny Glavin, the co-author of the new study, says that the discoveries of ribose in 4.5 billion years old meteorites are essential. It could have been due to the delivery of extraterrestrial ribose to the early earth. It is in line with the hypothesis of RNA evolving first. Glavin, who works for NASA's Goddard Center for Astrobiology in a statement, said that meteorites might have provided more ribose to earth than deoxyribose.