Scientists have discovered building blocks of genetic material that were present in meteorites that fell to Earth in the 1960s, giving more weight to the panspermia hypothesis -- that life on the planet may have started from substances originating from deep space.
A team led by Zita Martins, a chemist and astrobiologist at Imperial College in London, found that the meteorites' carbon-based compounds include sugars and amino acids, publishing their findings in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Martins said, "We are not saying that only meteorites contributed to the building blocks of life, but it's a very great contribution."
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