2 Dec 2025

Asteroid Bennu samples contain ribose and glucose, but no deoxyribose was detected

Space and aerospace
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

Analysis of samples of asteroid (101955) Bennu returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission detected molecular signatures matching ribose, a five-carbon sugar, and glucose, a six-carbon sugar. Glucose was reported for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample. Deoxyribose was not found. The announcement gives no abundance figures for the sugars.

Why it matters

Ribose is a component of RNA. The researchers interpret the absence of deoxyribose as consistent with the RNA world hypothesis, and say that all the components needed to form RNA are present in Bennu. The authors state that the sugars are not evidence of life.

Caveats

  • The sugars are not evidence of life, and the link to the RNA world hypothesis is the researchers' interpretation rather than a settled conclusion.
  • The analysis used an extract from one returned sample, which may not represent the whole asteroid. Neither the paper summary nor the NASA announcement reports sugar concentrations.
  • This is a planetary science result rather than a new technology; its relevance to Vrulum is the sample return and curation capability.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. peer reviewed paper
    Bio-essential sugars in samples from asteroid Bennu
    Yoshihiro Furukawa, et al.. Nature Geoscience, 2 Dec 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01838-6.
  2. other
    Sugars, 'Gum,' Stardust Found in NASA's Asteroid Bennu Samples
    Abby Tabor, Aaron L. Gronstal, Erin Morton et al.. NASA, 2 Dec 2025.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.