All of life’s nucleic acids could have extraterrestrial origins

All five nucleobases of RNA and DNA have been discovered in meteorites for the first time. These chemicals are essential ingredients for life on Earth and several purines and also two pyrimidines – thymine and cytosine – not previously detected in meteorites were found.

The findings come from an analysis of three carbonaceous meteorites, known to be rich in organic molecules. The discovery ‘provides additional support for the theory that the delivery of these compounds to Earth by meteorites may have played a role in the emergence of genetic functions for early life’, according to astrobiologist Daniel Glavin at Nasa, which provided one of the meteorites.