Blueprint for Life: Scientists Detect All Bases of DNA and RNA in Meteorites

Meteorites have been hurling the vastness of space since time memorial, wherein some hit Earth and other planets in the solar system.

It was long-speculated that life on our planet may have come from outer space.

However, a new study confirmed to have found this evidence that space rocks contained the necessary ingredients for the blueprint of life.

Scientists of the novel research claimed that previous studies have failed to discover that meteorites might have helped in delivering these vital ingredients to life.

Blueprint for Life

(Photo : GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP via Getty Images)

In the said paper published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday, April 26, scientists detected all five "genetic letters" of DNA and RNA from meteorites that were fundamentally crucial for life to kick in during the early years of Earth, as cited by Space.com.

Known as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), these are both essential molecules that carry genetic information that determines the physical, morphological, and biological structure of a living organism, from ancestors down to their descendants through evolution.

The DNA reportedly comprises four chemical bases such as adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T), which RNA also uses but also swaps T for uracil (U).

In the said study, the scientists were able to find these genetic chemical components inside space rocks that fell to Earth within the last century, as cited by Science News.

Also Read: Cyanide May Have Been a Primordial Soup to the Origin of Life on Earth: New Study

Mars: Related Case Study

In 1996, a research team led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) found evidence that primitive life on Mars may have existed 3.6 billion years ago.

The team consists of scientists from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, and Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The NASA-funded team found the first organic molecules believed to be of Martian origin, possibly from microscopic fossils of ancient, bacteria-like organisms enclosed in a perceived Martian rock that struck Earth as a meteorite.

The findings will later on be published in the journal Science in August of that year.

Although the discovery was significant, scientists previously acknowledged that it would be tremendously difficult to prove that life once existed on Mars, as the scientific community is still in the process of discovering the origins of life back on Earth.

Earth: Origins of Life

Over the decades, studies have progressed regarding the source of life on Earth since it was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago when the solar system was in a violent state, theoretically characterized by scientists as a vacuum in space of colliding space rocks.

This violent cosmic process led to the formation of the planets that we know of today.

In spite of this knowledge, it is still unclear to scientists where the most fundamental components of life originated.

In a recent paper published in Science Advances on April 13, a Canada-based study led to the discovery of the oldest fossils beneath the icy waters of the North American country.

This led scientists to presume that life on Earth, even at the microscopic level, may have started already 4.2 billion years ago.

The fossils were in the form of seafloor-hydrothermal jasper which was found to contain primordial microbial communities.

The breakthrough study challenged the prevailing long-held notion that life has just emerged at least between 3.5 and 3.7 billion years ago.