Japan: Experts discover amino acids in asteroid sample fetched by Hayabusa2 probe

In a major breakthrough, Japanese researchers have discovered over 20 types of amino acids in the asteroid samples fetched by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The probe was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2014 to the asteroid Ryugu with the aim to advance asteroid exploration technology. After travelling 3.2 billion km on an elliptical orbit around the sun over three years, the spacecraft arrived at its destination 300 million kilometres away and returned to Earth with the samples in December 2020. Hayabusa2's capsule collected around 5.4 grams of the samples, which are now being examined to find the origins of the universe. 

(Ryugu asteroid samples collected by Hayabusa2; Image: JAXA)

What are Amino acids?

Amino acids are considered the fundamental building blocks of life as they are used by living organisms to make proteins, which in turn are called the workhorse molecules of life. For perspective, just like an alphabet contains 26 letters, an organism uses 20 different amino acids in a huge variety of arrangements to build millions of different proteins. Even scientists believe that life on Earth began after a chemical reaction resulted in the formation of amino acids which in turn formed proteins and eventually life on this planet thriving. However, many experts believe that some of the life-forming ingredients were delivered to Earth by meteorites that crashed millions of years ago.

Amino acids discovered in Ryugu samples

The revelation of amino acid discovery was made by an official from Japan's Education Ministry, the Japan Today reported. He said that the amino acids discovered are extremely important as they would help in the quest to understand the origin of the universe and ultimately life. Launched by JAXA in collaboration with the University of Tokyo and Hiroshima University among others, the Hayabusa2 had delivered the samples without exposing them to outside air or even sunlight. 

Notably, previous studies on the samples have resulted in the discovery of water and organic matter, making it an even more promising subject of research. However, this is not the first time scientists have found amino acids on space rocks. In 2009, NASA announced to have traced the presence of amino acids on samples of comet Wild 2 brought home by the agency's Stardust spacecraft. "The discovery of glycine (type of amino acid) in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare," said Dr. Carl Pilcher, Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute which co-funded the research said in a statement.