Scientists find ribose, glucose in asteroids

Scientists analyzing material returned from asteroid Bennu have identified ribose and glucose in the sample, adding two biologically important sugars to a growing list of organic compounds detected beyond Earth. NASA said the work was led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University with Japanese and U.S. collaborators and was published in *Nature Geoscience*. The agency said ribose, the sugar used in RNA, and glucose, a six-carbon sugar central to biology on Earth, were found in Bennu material collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission. The finding does not show that life existed on Bennu or elsewhere in space. NASA and the paper summary say the result shows that some molecules used by life were present in asteroid material and may have formed in the parent body from brines containing formaldehyde. That places the work in the field of prebiotic chemistry, which studies how nonliving chemistry can produce compounds later used by biology. (nasa.gov) ### Which asteroid are scientists talking about? Bennu is the near-Earth asteroid sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA says the mission launched on September 8, 2016, collected surface material on October 20, 2020, and delivered the sample capsule to Earth on September 24, 2023. The sugar detections come from laboratory analysis of that returned material, not from telescope observations. NASA’s mission material describes Bennu as carbon-rich, which is one reason scientists treat it as a useful record of early solar system chemistry. (nasa.gov) Earlier Bennu studies had already reported amino acids, nucleobases and salts in the sample, and the sugar result broadens that inventory. ### What exactly was found? NASA said Furukawa’s team found several “bio-essential sugars” in the Bennu sample, including ribose and glucose. (science.nasa.gov) The agency’s summary and transcript say the team identified six different sugars in total, with ribose and glucose highlighted because of their biological roles. NASA said glucose was the first six-carbon sugar reported in an extraterrestrial sample. The *Nature Geoscience* summary says the Bennu extract contained ribose and glucose and suggests the compounds may have formed inside the asteroid’s parent body. (nasa.gov) That is a chemical-origin claim, not a biological one. ### Why are ribose and glucose getting the attention? Ribose matters because RNA uses it as part of its backbone. NASA’s explainer says that directly, and researchers often discuss ribose in connection with “RNA world” ideas about early life because RNA can both store information and catalyze some reactions. (nasa.gov) Glucose matters for a different reason. NASA said glucose provides cells with energy and is used to make structural fibers such as cellulose. In reporting on the Bennu result, the agency presented ribose and glucose as examples of molecules that biology uses, while stopping short of saying they are evidence of living systems in space. (nature.com) ### Does this prove meteorites brought life to Earth? No study cited here says that. NASA’s wording is narrower: asteroid material contains molecules important to life, and such material could have contributed ingredients to early Earth. (svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) That is consistent with delivery-of-building-blocks scenarios, not proof of panspermia or proof that life itself arrived from space. A separate 2026 study on the Orgueil meteorite reached a similar, but still limited, conclusion. (svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) Université Côte d’Azur said Cornelia Meinert’s team detected several sugars, including ribose, in the Orgueil meteorite and said the results support the hypothesis that meteorites may have brought a “molecular kit” to early Earth. The university statement described the sugars as most likely extraterrestrial in origin. (nasa.gov) ### Why are people mentioning meteorites as well as asteroids? Bennu is an asteroid, while Orgueil is a meteorite that fell in France in 1864. Scientists compare them because both preserve primitive solar system material. The Orgueil work, published in *Nature Communications* in March 2026 according to Université Côte d’Azur, reported multiple sugars including ribose in a carbonaceous chondrite sample. (newsroom.univ-cotedazur.eu) The next reference points are already public. NASA hosts the OSIRIS-REx mission archive and the Bennu sugar explainer, while the Bennu findings remain tied to the *Nature Geoscience* paper and the Orgueil follow-up to the March 2026 *Nature Communications* study. (science.nasa.gov) (newsroom.univ-cotedazur.eu)