DNA was undoubtedly one of the greatest discoveries of science, not from the 19th century, when it was first isolated by Friedrich Miesche at the University of Tübingen, Germany, but from the entire history of science. And it is that, although it would take more than a century and a half for a human being to be able to interpret it as a whole, he was the first to look at the instructions that define the various forms of life.

As we have already mentioned, when we talked about the last major milestone in human genome research, The nitrogen base of a DNA molecule can be of four typeseach denoted by the letter, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). In the case of RNA, the composition is similar, except that thymine is replaced by uracil., which is also a nucleotide. Thus, if we take into account DNA and RNA, we can speak of five hydrogenated bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine and uracil.

The theory that life on our planet has its origins in the universe dates back to antiquity. Now, at this point, it is worth clarifying that I do not mean the theories of spaceships that flew tens of millions of years ago to bring samples to Earth or something like that. And no, I don’t mean that the Egyptian pyramids are the work of aliens, although I admit that I enjoyed dwarf time with Stargate and it is even likely that I will see it again soon.

No, I’m talking about theories that suggest that the basis of DNA, and therefore of life as we know it, could have its origins in the universeand could arrive on Earth as unexpected passengers in meteorites that collided with our planet. And there is reason to think that this is possible, although it is true that face to face, there is still reason to think that this is not the case, and that DNA has its unique origin in the third great stone from the Sun. .

And so far, this is an analysis of some meteorites that hit Earth millions of years ago revealed traces of adenine, guanine and uracil, three of the nucleobases we mentioned earlier. These elements have been detected by classical techniques of limited scope. However, and according to Science News, a new analytical method developed by geochemist Yasuhiro Oba of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, would also make it possible to find cytosine and thyminethereby completing the supply of DNA and RNA.

Even more, some of the analyzed samples would contain five hydrogenated basesso if it were possible to confirm that they had already carried them before the collision with the Earth, the finding would be very revealing, as it would allow on a stronger basis to support that the origin of DNA, and therefore of life as it is, space, and not necessarily on our planet.

Do DNA bases really come from space?

Now there is a very, very important nuance, and this is exactly what I mentioned at the beginning of the previous paragraph, ie the need to confirm that the nucleobases were already in the samples. before they arrived on our planet. The three analyzed samples arrived on our planet in 1950, 1969 and 2000, so the possibility that five elements reached them when they were already on the earth’s surface is very, very real. Thus, there is no way to determine the origin of the current samples.

Does that mean we’re back to square one? No, far from it. The most important thing for the moment we already have the necessary technology to be able to detect the presence of the five nucleobases of DNA and RNA in this type of sample, something that was not possible until Yasuhiro Oba’s work was completed. And this breakthrough comes at the right time.

ANDnow, of course, we need samples of meteorites that have not come into contact with our planetand the good news is that, as I indicated earlier, this is the right time, because in 2020, the Japanese Hayabusa space mission extracted a piece of rock from the surface of an asteroid called Ryugu and brought it to Earth, and at that time NASA is developing a similar mission to the asteroid Bennu, whose sample is expected to arrive on our planet in September 2023.

If the scientific community has the opportunity to analyze these samples with a system developed by Obama and the result shows the presence of adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine and uracil, and thus the DNA base, we are getting closer than ever to being children of the stars And while it won’t tell us if there’s more life in the universe, it tells us that the base of life has inhabited it for millions of years. And as Moby told us in 2002, And no one can stop us now, because we are all made of stars.