NASA finds ribose and glucose in asteroid

NASA said samples from asteroid Bennu contain ribose and glucose, adding two bio-essential sugars to the growing list of organic compounds identified in material returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission. The agency highlighted the finding in a news release and related science materials after a team of Japanese and U.S. researchers analyzed the sample. Bennu material was delivered to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, after NASA’s first asteroid sample-return mission. NASA has also said earlier Bennu studies found molecules that, on Earth, are key to life, along with evidence of a salty-water history on the asteroid’s parent body. ### Which asteroid are scientists talking about? Bennu is a carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid that NASA targeted with OSIRIS-REx, a mission launched to collect and return pristine surface material. NASA says OSIRIS-REx collected the sample in 2020 and delivered it to Utah in 2023, where it has been curated and studied. The returned material matters because it was collected directly from the asteroid rather than recovered after surviving passage through Earth’s atmosphere, which can complicate contamination control and chemical interpretation. (nasa.gov) NASA has described the Bennu sample as a way to study chemistry from the early solar system in a relatively unaltered state. (science.nasa.gov) ### What exactly did the researchers find in the sample? A Nature Geoscience paper reported that Bennu samples contain several bio-essential sugars, including ribose and glucose. The paper said the sugars may have formed in Bennu’s parent asteroid from brines containing formaldehyde. NASA’s own summary of the work said Japanese and U.S. scientists discovered ribose and glucose in the Bennu material. (nasa.gov) A NASA Scientific Visualization Studio transcript similarly says the team found those sugars within the sample. ### Why are people focusing on ribose? Daniel Glavin, a NASA scientist involved in Bennu research, said in NASA educational materials that ribose is the sugar used in RNA. (nature.com) That is why the finding has drawn attention beyond planetary science and into origins-of-life research. Ribose is not the same thing as life, and NASA did not say it found living organisms on Bennu. (nasa.gov) The result shows that an asteroid sample carried molecules used in biological chemistry on Earth. ### Does this prove panspermia or the RNA World hypothesis? NASA’s published materials say the Bennu sample contains molecules relevant to prebiotic chemistry and to questions about how life’s ingredients reached early Earth. (science.nasa.gov) The agency’s language supports the idea that primitive bodies could have delivered building blocks of life, but it does not present the sugar finding as proof of panspermia. (nasa.gov) The RNA link is also narrower than some social-media posts suggest. Because ribose is part of RNA, the finding is consistent with research into prebiotic chemistry and the possible importance of RNA-like systems early in Earth’s history, but the paper and NASA summaries do not say Bennu confirms the full RNA World hypothesis. That is an inference from the chemistry, not a formal claim of proof by NASA. (nasa.gov) ### How does this fit with earlier Bennu results? NASA said in January 2025 that Bennu samples had already revealed a broader mix of life-related ingredients, including organic molecules and evidence of a history of saltwater. A separate PNAS paper later reported that Bennu material contained prebiotic organic compounds and showed signs of heterogeneous aqueous alteration. (science.nasa.gov) Those results place the sugar discovery inside a larger pattern: Bennu appears to preserve records of water-driven chemistry and a wide organic inventory. Nature and PNAS papers published after the sample return have continued to add detail on how those compounds may have formed and changed inside Bennu’s parent body. ### Where should readers look next? NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission page remains the central source for mission updates, sample curation details and linked research on Bennu. (nasa.gov) NASA Science also hosts resource pages and videos featuring Glavin and other researchers discussing the sugar discovery and its implications. Future Bennu papers are likely to come from the same international research teams now publishing coordinated analyses of the returned sample. (nature.com) The next concrete step is more laboratory work on the material already on Earth, using the curated Bennu sample that OSIRIS-REx delivered on Sept. 24, 2023. (science.nasa.gov 1) (science.nasa.gov 2)