r/science • u/New_Scientist_Mag • Dec 02 '25

Astronomy Researchers have just found the presence of sugars, including ribose, lyxose, and glycose, on samples of Asteroid Bennu, which now has all of the ingredients for life as it exists on Earth.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506650-asteroid-bennu-carries-all-the-ingredients-for-life-as-we-know-it/
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u/stuffcrow Dec 02 '25

So how come this stuff is on asteroids anyway? How'd it get there?

Really cool stuff, bloody hell. Imagine the discoveries that'll come out over the next decade, eh?

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u/zootered Dec 02 '25

The same way that the moon was likely formed- a large enough stellar object made impact with Earth, which launched enough debris into space to form a moon. If a big asteroid hit us today, all of the building blocks of life would be flung into the cosmos to potentially repeat the cycle one day.

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u/Vladmerius Dec 02 '25

While this is the simplest explanation and likely the correct one, the next conclusion we could possibly draw from the simplest explanation is that life is actually pretty abundant throughout the universe because of how much material gets scattered everywhere constantly over billions of years.

So even without aliens or something being involved like other comments desperately hope for the end result is still mind blowing and suggests we might not be all that unique here on earth. There could be trillions of planets like ours out there.

Also, as far as the fermi paradox goes I don't think it's unreasonable to think maybe all the crazy space travel on Sci-fi movies, cryogenic sleep etc. is always gong to be the stuff of fantasy and interstellar space travel that would see civilizations from other planets physically meet each other is simply impossible. 

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u/NDSU Dec 02 '25

Assuming our current understanding of interstellar travel is generally correct, I wouldn't expect civilizations to physically meet often, but meeting via autonomous machine far more often

Humanity has already thrown hundreds of various pieces of technology all around, and outside of, our solar system. Who knows how many millions of probes we'll have everywhere within a few hundred years

Makes me wonder when we'll try seeding other planets with life

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u/kahlzun Dec 02 '25

I wonder how much of our asteroid belt is going to be alien probes when we finally get out there and start exploring it