"The fact that terrestrial microbes are the Earth's best colonizers means we can never completely discount terrestrial ...

A recent discovery made by scientists working with a sample of rock from outer space highlights one of the huge challenges ...

Scientists have found microorganisms crawling over a sample retrieved from the 200 million-mile-distant asteroid Ryugu. But ...

Last year, a study reported the discovery of organic molecules on asteroid Ryugu, sparking discussions about the origins of life and the possibility of panspermia — the idea that life could be seeded ...

HOPES of finding traces of alien life in the universe have been scuppered yet again. And this time on asteroid Ryugu, a space ...

Samples taken from the space-returned piece of asteroid Ryugu were collected and prepared under strict anti-contamination ...

Asteroid Ryugu was altered by water and contains organic molecules older than the Sun. The building blocks of RNA and Vitamin ...

A Ryugu asteroid sample has been found contaminated by terrestrial microbes, raising questions about planetary protection.

The salt crystals, consisting of rock salt, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfate, are crucial for understanding the evolution ...

Discovery published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science highlights challenge of contamination in space exploration ...

Japanese researchers have identified sodium carbonates, or salt crystals, in samples from the Ryugu asteroid brought back to ...

Panspermia is the hypothesis that life can survive the transfer between planetary bodies as a secondary path for life to get ...