Japanese scientists have found more than 20 species of amino acids in samples taken from the planet Rugu. Kyoto Agency reported today. According to Kyodo, amino acids, the basic building blocks of life, were first discovered by some asteroids.

The samples were delivered to Earth by the Hajabusa 2 spacecraft, already sent to Rugby by the Japanese space agency Jaxa. In December 2014, Hijabusa 2 began its journey to a 4.6 billion year old planet about 300 million kilometers from Earth.. After three and a half years of space travel, it reached its destination in mid-2018.. In the autumn of the same year, she began to fulfill the purpose of the whole project – for indications of the origin of the solar system.

The spacecraft returned to Earth in 2020 with more than 5.4 grams of material from the surface layer of the Rugby. These were samples that did not receive any sunlight or cosmic rays.

Preliminary study of the samples has already indicated the presence of water and organic matter, Written by Kyoto Agency. In 2021, other research institutes, including Jaxa, the University of Tokyo and Hiroshima, began detailed testing of the material.

It is not known how the amino acids got to Earth, but one theory is that this could happen when a meteorite or comet hits.