Scientists examining samples from the asteroid Ryugu, brought back to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2, have made intriguing findings. The samples contain two organic compounds crucial for life, and researchers now believe they may have found what could be “small seeds of life” that originated in space and reached Earth. Ryugu lacks a protective atmosphere, so interplanetary dust in space can impact its surface, altering its composition. The study suggests that “melt splashes” on the sample surfaces, formed when Ryugu faced bombardment by cometary dust micrometeoroids, may contain materials from cometary organic matter mixed with Ryugu’s hydrous silicates. The analysis also revealed carbonaceous materials resembling primitive organic matter in cometary dust, lacking nitrogen and oxygen. The scientists propose that these materials formed from cometary organic matter when volatiles evaporated due to heating, suggesting the transport of cometary matter from the outer solar system to a region near Earth.
