Organisation

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Japanese national aerospace and space agency

All five DNA and RNA nucleobases found in asteroid Ryugu samples

Japanese study confirms pristine space rock contains molecular building blocks of life

A team of Japanese scientists has confirmed that all five nucleobases that form the genetic code of life on Earth are present in samples from the asteroid Ryugu, collected by JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission in 2020. The finding, published in Nature Astronomy, supports the idea that the molecular ingredients of life were forming in space billions of years ago and may have been delivered to the early Earth by asteroids.

3 Nov 2026

Space

Japan's MMX spacecraft launches on mission to retrieve sample from Mars moon Phobos

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully launched on a mission to collect dust from the surface of Mars' moon Phobos and return it to Earth, in what would be a historic first for planetary science. The Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 0441 local time on 20 October, according to the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Phobos in August 2027 and return a sample capsule to the Woomera desert in South Australia in 2031.

16 days ago