Origin of DNA in Universe

This statement might sound like a line from a sci-fi movie, but what if life on Earth didn’t start here at all?

For decades, that question sat on the fringe of science, it was filed next to crop circles and UFOs. But now, with new data from NASA and Japan’s space agency, a once-laughed-off idea is quietly moving into the realm of possibility.

It turns out that some researchers think life, or at least the ingredients for it, may have arrived on Earth from space. The theory is called panspermia, and recent findings from asteroid samples are giving it more weight than ever before.

From punchline to plausible

When British astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe first suggested in the 1970s that comets could have “seeded” life on Earth, the reaction was brutal. Hoyle’s reputation in mainstream science never recovered. But half a century later, scientists are now sifting through asteroid dust and its data and finding traces of the same story.

NASA’s and Japan’s missions both returned pieces of ancient asteroids to Earth. Inside the asteroids researchers have found carbon, ammonia, salts, and even amino acids, which are the molecules that make up proteins. In January 2025, scientists said OSIRIS-REx’s samples contained 14 of the 20 amino acids used by life on Earth, plus chemical precursors of DNA and RNA.

“Bennu is basically a pantry full of ingredients,” said Dr. Jason Dworkin, NASA’s lead scientist on the OSIRIS-REx mission. “But it wasn’t quite the right conditions to make a cake. On Earth, we have cake, and we don’t know why.”

The Mars connection

The idea that life might travel between worlds isn’t new. In 1996, NASA claimed to have found “microfossils” inside of a Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica, a finding that was later debunked, but not before President Bill Clinton announced it from the White House lawn.

That brief moment of excitement sparked a generation of research into how life could possibly hitchhike across the solar system. Today, scientists know for a fact that rocks do travel between Earth and Mars, catapulted by impacts and carried through space. However, whether microbes could survive the trip is still up for debate.

“Mars cooled faster than Earth, so it may have been ready for life sooner,” said Professor Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. “It’s entirely possible we’re all descendants of Martians.”

The post continues ..

- Author: Stefan Milovanovic

Source: ScienceFocus
Read the original article on GEEKSPIN.