Astronomers have found components of ribonucleic acid in asteroids. This organic substance plays the role of an intermediary: it copies DNA fragments and delivers them to ribosomes. In ribosomes, information is read in RNA for protein synthesis.
Carbohydrates - ribose, arabinose and xylose - were found in the asteroids NWA 801 and Murchison. In addition, a lot of carbon was found in their composition. Moreover, it is much more than living beings on Earth. Such important information was obtained after analyzing the substance of the asteroid using the method of gas chromatography, mass spectrometry. These research methods sort various molecules by weight.
It turned out that in the asteroid Murchison the sugar content is from 6.7 to 180 billionths. In the spacecraft NWA 801, carbohydrates are slightly less - from 2.3 to 11 billion parts. For such cosmic bodies this is a lot. The results of scientific research confirm the hypothesis of scientists about extraterrestrial origin of life. According to Japanese astronomer Yoshihoro Furukawa, carbohydrates of extraterrestrial origin were of great importance for the appearance of RNA and DNA on Earth billions of years ago.
Astronomers have speculated that asteroids could be contaminated with organic matter brought in from the Earth. However, spectrographic analysis showed that carbohydrates could not be introduced from the Earth.Also, amino acids, substances necessary for the synthesis of complex proteins, the basis of life on our planet, could not be introduced to these and other asteroids.
To confirm the hypotheses, scientists plan to explore more asteroids to detect traces of carbohydrates in them. They face many challenges. One of them is the analysis of whether the molecules have bias - left-side or right-sided. This is important for detecting the biological activity of carbohydrates and, in general, unraveling the nature of such an isomerism of these organic substances. The fact is that only left-shifted isomers are suitable for life. Why is it that the right-biased isomers are unsuitable for the appearance and maintenance of life?
The results of analyzes of the composition of carbohydrates will bring scientists closer to unraveling another mystery: why in all living creatures of the Earth there are only levorotatory isomers of carbohydrates. The same data is important in order to understand the connection between meteor activity and the appearance of life in the era of the young Earth. Although nucleic components were previously detected on asteroids, the discovery of sugars there can make a revolution in understanding the origin of life not only on Earth, but throughout the Universe.
The results of this discovery by scientists will help to understand how DNA originated, how it affects the diversity of life and why, for millions of species of living creatures, almost 80 percent of DNA is shared. This is one of the important unresolved issues of modern biology.
