Remember when Japan sent a spacecraft to an asteroid 180 million miles away to scoop up some dirt from the surface? Six years after arriving on Earth, that sample has yielded some insights into the seeding of life on our planet. Read on to learn more about the latest findings and other science news we found interesting this week.
DNA content on Ryugu
In 2020, a capsule from the Japanese space probe Hayabusa2 returned to Earth with samples collected from the surface of asteroid Ryugu, and scientists have spent the next year analyzing those materials for clues about the conditions that existed in the early Solar System. This week, researchers in Japan reported an exciting discovery: Ryugu samples contain five building blocks of DNA and RNA. These findings, combined with other recent studies, may bring us closer to understanding how the ingredients for life first arrived on Earth billions of years ago.
Study, published in journal nature astronomyThe nucleobases found were adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil – all of which were also found in samples collected last year from a different asteroid, Bennu, and before that in meteorites called Murchison and Orguil. This suggests that these nucleobases were widespread in the early Solar System, and supports the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids such as Ryugu and Bennu delivered them to Earth, the authors explain in the paper. Ammonia was also found in the samples, which may play a role in the formation of these nucleobases.
“The discovery of these building blocks does not necessarily mean that life existed on Ryugu,” said study lead author Toshiki Koga of the Japan Agency for Ocean-Earth Science and Technology. AFP. “Instead, their presence indicates that primitive asteroids may produce and preserve molecules that are important for chemistry related to the origin of life.”
Bacteria help eat plastic waste
Researchers in Germany have identified a trio of bacteria that can digest a common plastic additive, but only when working together. This study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology Found that a “consortium” of bacterial strains (from two species of the genus). pseudomonas and from one mycobacterium) was able to break down many phthalate esters (PAEs), which are often used to make plastic materials more flexible. As plastic pollution increases, these chemicals are increasingly entering the environment and research shows they can have harmful effects on human health and wildlife.
The team took a sample of the biofilm that had formed on the bioreactor’s polyurethane tubing and focused on microbes that could be found in their own laboratory at home. This sample was incubated in a growth medium containing PAE diethyl phthalate (DEP) as the main source of carbon and energy. According to a press release, they eventually ended up with a stable culture of bacteria that could break down DEP, as long as the DEP concentration did not exceed 888 milligrams per liter. The consortium can engulf all the DEP in 24 hours at 30 °C. This PAE was also able to grow on dimethyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, and dipropyl phthalate.
The researchers identified the bacteria in the consortium through DNA sequencing, but found that they were not able to deal with PAE individually, suggesting that they break down the chemicals through a “cooperative process” known as cross-feeding. The consortium could create another tool in the pollution-fighting toolbox, which could help break down PAE in contaminated areas or accelerate the degradation of plastics containing PAE by making them more brittle. “This approach could also be effective in treating industrial plastic waste streams,” he said.
Hubble witnesses the breakup
Newly released images from the Hubble Space Telescope show the unexpected breakup of Comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) – Comet K1, for short – as it exits the Solar System in November. A team of researchers who initially set out to observe a different comet had to change targets due to technical problems, and succeeded in capturing Comet K1 just after its collapse. Hubble took three 20-second images between November 8 and November 10, 2025, the first of which the team estimates was taken about eight days after fragmentation began. During the observation period, one of the comet’s smaller pieces also began to break up. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
“Hubble has never before captured a fragmented comet so close to when it actually fell apart,” John Noonan, a research professor in the physics department at Auburn University, said in a statement. “Most of the time, it happens after a few weeks to a month. And in this case, we were able to see it only a few days later.” You can read more about rare sightings here.
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