Photo by Anton Maksimov 5642.su on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 2 December 2025, NASA announced that scientists led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University in Japan had found the sugars ribose and glucose in rock and dust from asteroid Bennu. The material was collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and delivered to Earth on 24 September 2023.
Key facts
The team identified six-carbon glucose for the first time in any extraterrestrial sample, along with the five-carbon sugar ribose.
All five nucleobases used in DNA and RNA, plus phosphates and amino acids, had already been found in Bennu material, so every component of RNA is now known to be present.
Researchers found ribose but no deoxyribose, the sugar in DNA, which fits the idea that early life relied on RNA.
Companion papers described a gum-like ancient polymer and six times more supernova dust than in any other material studied.
Why it matters
The results strengthen the idea that the raw chemistry for life was widespread in the early solar system and could have reached the young Earth on asteroids. The absence of DNA's sugar also gives researchers a fresh clue about how the first genetic molecules may have arisen.
Worth noting
Finding the ingredients of RNA is not the same as finding RNA or life; no living material was found. The analysis used a small part of the roughly 121.6 grams returned.