Two organic compounds essential for living organisms have been found in samples retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu, buttressing the notion that some ingredients crucial for the advent of life arrived on Earth aboard rocks from space billions of years ago.

Scientists said on Tuesday they detected uracil and niacin in rocks obtained by the Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft from two sites on Ryugu in 2019. Uracil is one of the chemical building blocks for RNA, a molecule carrying directions for building and operating living organisms. Niacin, also called Vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid, is vital for their metabolism.

The Ryugu samples, which looked like dark-gray rubble, were transported 155 million miles (250 million km) back to Earth and returned to our planet’s surface in a sealed capsule that landed in 2020 in Australia’s remote outback for analysis in Japan.

Scientists long have pondered about the conditions necessary for life to arise after Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. The new findings fit well with the hypothesis that bodies like comets, asteroids and meteorites that bombarded early Earth seeded the young planet with compounds that helped pave the way for the first microbes.

Scientists previously detected key organic molecules in carbon-rich meteorites found on Earth. But there was the question of whether these space rocks had been contaminated by exposure to the Earth’s environment after landing.

“Our key finding is that uracil and niacin, both of which are of biological significance, are indeed present in extraterrestrial environments and they may have been provided to the early Earth as a component of asteroids and meteorites. We suspect they had a role in prebiotic evolution on Earth and possibly for the emergence of first life,” said astrochemist Yasuhiro Oba of Hokkaido University in Japan, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Communications.

“These molecules on Ryugu were recovered in a pristine extraterrestrial setting,” Oba said. “It was directly sampled on the asteroid Ryugu and returned to Earth, and finally to laboratories without any contact with terrestrial contaminants.”

RNA, short for ribonucleic acid, would not be possible without uracil. RNA, a molecule present in all living cells, is vital in coding, regulation and activity of genes. RNA has structural similarities to DNA, a molecule that carries an organism’s genetic blueprint.

Niacin is important in underpinning metabolism and can help produce the “energy” that powers living organisms.

The researchers extracted uracil, niacin and some other organic compounds in the Ryugu samples by soaking the material in hot water and then performing analyses called liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Organic astrochemist and study co-author Yoshinori Takano of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) said he is now looking forward to the results of analyses on samples being returned to Earth in September from another asteroid. The U.S. space agency NASA during its OSIRIS-REx mission collected samples in 2020 from the asteroid Bennu.

Oba said uracil and niacin were found at both landing sites on Ryugu, which is about a half-mile (900 meters) in diameter and is classified as a near-Earth asteroid. The concentrations of the compounds were higher at one of the sites than the other.

The sample from the site with the lower concentrations was derived from surface material more susceptible to degradation induced by energetic particles darting through space, Oba said. The sample from the other site was mainly derived from subsurface material more protected from degradation, Oba added.

Asteroids are rocky primordial bodies that formed in the early solar system. The researchers suggest that the organic compounds found on Ryugu may have been formed with the help of chemical reactions caused by starlight in icy materials residing in interstellar space.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the “climate time bomb is ticking” as he urged rich nations on Monday to slash emissions sooner after a new assessment from scientists said there was little time to lose in tackling climate change.

“The rate of temperature rise in the last half century is the highest in 2,000 years,” he said. “Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. The climate time-bomb is ticking.”

In a recorded address, Guterres described the sixth “synthesis report” from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as “a survival guide for humanity” and urged developed countries to commit to reaching net zero emissions by the earlier date of around 2040.

The synthesis report summarized findings from three expert assessments published between 2021 and 2022 that looked at the physical science, impacts, and mitigation of climate change. The summary report is designed to provide clarity for policymakers as they consider further action to slash emissions.

“We have the tools to stave off and reduce the risks of the worst impacts of the climate crisis, but we must take advantage of this moment to act now,” said U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.

The 37-page report was distilled from thousands of pages of previous assessments after a week of deliberations in Interlaken, Switzerland.

The document will also serve as a guide for a global climate change “stocktake” set to take place this year, in which countries will assess progress. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations are also expected to update climate pledges by 2025.

According to the IPCC, emissions must be halved by the mid-2030s if the world is to have any chance of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels – a key target enshrined in the Paris accord.

“If we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee.

On current trajectories, the planet is on track to warm by 3.2C by century’s end, and temperatures could still rise by at least 2.2C even if existing pledges are met.

Average temperatures are already 1.1C higher than 1850-1900 levels, driving more extreme weather events worldwide.

“In the words of very senior colleagues in the IPCC, we’re up the proverbial creek – that’s really the key message from the report,” said synthesis report co-author Frank Jotzo of Australian National University.

Observers said the major areas of contention included the language around finance and the projected impacts of climate change, as well as the issue of “equity” and climate justice for poorer countries.

Some governments also wanted to give more prominence to their own favoured climate solutions, including solar power or carbon capture.

The IPCC says the world needs to accelerate the transition to green energy and transform agriculture and eating habits if it has any chance of making the necessary cuts in emissions.

It also warned of more extreme weather, rapidly rising sea levels, melting Arctic ice and the growing likelihood of catastrophic and irreversible “tipping points”. They also said nearly half the world’s population was already vulnerable to climate impacts.

“In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once,” said Guterres.

BANGKOK — Seven storeys above a shopfloor hawking cheap perfume and nylon underwear, Thailand’s “shopping mall gorilla” sits alone in a cage — her home for 30 years despite a re-ignited row over her captivity.

Activists around the world have long campaigned for the primate to be moved from Pata Zoo, located on top of a Bangkok mall, with singer Cher and actor Gillian Anderson adding their voices in 2020.

But the family who owns Bua Noi — whose name translates as “little lotus” — have resisted public and government pressure to relinquish the critically endangered animal.

The gorilla has lived at Pata for more than three decades but her case made headlines again this month after the zoo offered a 100,000 baht ($2,800) reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever graffitied “Free Bua Noi!” on one of the mall’s walls.

The upset comes as Thailand welcomes back tourists after the pandemic, many drawn to the kingdom’s wildlife — and ease of access.

The zoo represents a snag in its shift from a country infamous for tiger selfies and abused elephants, to the kingdom trying to position itself as more environmentally friendly.

Authorities have passed new environmental legislation, mostly targeted at preventing the abuse of native-born animals, and these laws do not necessarily cover privately owned zoos such as Pata — or non-indigenous creatures like Bua Noi.

“(Pata) can still open because the wild animal conservation and protection act zoo section has not been enforced yet,” Padej Laithong, director of the national wildlife conservation office, told AFP.

Animal welfare regulations are monitored at only eight state-linked zoos, and with private facilities, officials are more worried about them fulfilling licensing requirements.

Pata had applied for a licence extension before theirs expired, Padej said, adding he was mostly concerned over the building’s fire safety — not the animals’ welfare.

“All of these details must be answered before the license can be renewed, suspended or revoked,” he said.

‘Among her own kind’

A representative for Pata Zoo did not return multiple requests for comment.

But the zoo has blamed foreigners for the criticism, noting that zoos around the world house gorillas without problems.

“No citizens of any country in the world have attacked their country for possessing gorillas, except in Thailand,” the management said in a six-page statement published after the graffiti incident.

They said the gorilla has been well-cared for throughout her life, despite the creature costing more to support than she brought in.

Bua Noi was reportedly three years old when she was brought over from Germany in 1992. With the average lifespan of the Eastern Gorilla being over 40 years, according to IUCN, she has spent much of her life at Pata.

“She needs to get out of it,” Edwin Wiek, of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, a sanctuary that aims to educate people and rehabilitate animals, told AFP.

“She is not able to see the sun, the moon. She’s in a cement box with glass windows.”

As international pressure to release Bua Noi grew last year, the family-owned zoo rejected a reported 30 million baht ($880,000) offer from Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, saying the gorilla was too old to be rehomed.

But activists say this misses the point, insisting that the cage holding the gorilla — a highly sociable animal that would live in tightly-knit family groups in the wild — is unsuitable.

“She needs to be among her own kind, or at least be outside and have some chance to see things, experience nature, birds flying around,” said Wiek.

Other animal rights groups have gone further, with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) — which has staged multiple protests over the years — saying Bua Noi was “suffering from extreme psychological distress”.

Each weekend, children and parents take the rickety lift up to the zoo, eventually climbing out to a rooftop Bua Noi shares with macaques, orangutans and tropical birds.

Scruffy pygmy goats greet visitors before they are directed towards Bua Noi, away from the building dust and debris still dominating much of the zoo.

There the massive gorilla looks set to remain, stuck behind iron bars and glass windows with only a swinging tire for company.