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--- transportation:comets [2026/03/07 23:16] – [2024 YR4] timb
+++ transportation:comets [2026/03/17 21:18] (current) – [Ryugu] timb
@@ Line 892: / Line 892: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/rare-asteroid-sample-contaminated-by-microorganisms-despite-scientists-best-efforts-2000528691
+== Everything needed to make DNA and RNA found in asteroid sample ==
+Results from Ryugu suggest the the Solar System produced the building blocks of life
+Simon Sharwood - Tue 17 Mar 2026 06:29 UTC
+Scientists have found that all five of the substances that make up DNA and RNA in samples from Ryugu, the asteroid Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency visited in 2020.
+As outlined in a paper titled “A complete set of canonical nucleobases in the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu” that appeared in the journal Nature Astronomy this week, analysis of samples from Ryugu turned up “all five canonical nucleobases – purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil).”
+That matters because “The purines adenine and guanine and the pyrimidines cytosine, uracil and thymine constitute the base sequences of DNA and RNA that encode and transmit genetic information.”
+And they were all floating around in an orbit between Earth and Mars.
+“This implies that the molecular prerequisites for life are not unique to Earth and may emerge as natural products of chemical evolution throughout the Solar System,” the paper states.
+There’s more: “Nucleobases could have been delivered to the early Earth, potentially contributing to the molecular inventory necessary for life,” the paper argues. “Furthermore, elucidating the formation mechanisms of extraterrestrial nucleobases helps to constrain the universal physicochemical conditions under which they can form abiotically, thus linking astrochemical processes in interstellar and planetary environments to the chemical evolution that preceded the origin of life.”
+https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/17/everything_needed_to_make_dna/
@@ Line 1326: / Line 1343: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/comet-a3-could-be-the-years-brightest-heres-how-to-see-it-2000502090
+====== Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) ======
+== Newly Discovered Comet Could Appear During the Day—If It’s Not Destroyed First ==
+Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) is set for a dangerous brush with our star.
+Passant Rabie - March 12, 2026
+A recently discovered comet is plunging toward a fateful encounter with the Sun, which will determine whether it puts on a spectacular showing during the daylight or if it completely disintegrates into nothingness.
+Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) is set for its perihelion, closest approach to the Sun, on April 4, when it will come within 99,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from our host star, according to Space.com. That’s incredibly close on a cosmic scale, and there’s a possibility that the comet may be torn apart by the Sun’s gravitational force or destroyed by the star’s heat. If it does survive, however, the comet could shine as bright as Venus in the evening twilight, Sky & Telescope reported.
+https://gizmodo.com/newly-discovered-comet-could-appear-during-the-day-if-its-not-destroyed-first-2000732680
@@ Line 1454: / Line 1486: @@
 https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/meteorite-200-times-larger-than-one-that-killed-dinosaurs-reset-early-life/4020391.article
+===== Arizona =====
+== Arizona's Meteor Crater is still revealing new secrets 50,000 years later ==
+"The crater is still providing new insights every year, so continued studies there are really important."
+Leonard David - 13 March 2026
+Arizona's Meteor Crater and other scars leftover from collisions with space rocks continue to serve up their secrets.
+Meteor Crater formed some 50,000 years ago. It represents the best preserved meteor impact site in the world, measuring some 700 feet deep (213 meters), more than 4,000 feet across (1,219 meters), and 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) in circumference.
+Impact features like Meteor Crater continue to be ongoing research sites, generating new data on what happens when objects from the cosmos strike our planet. In fact, a number of competitive grants are being offered to support field research at known or suspected impact sites worldwide. That funding is backing laboratory and computer analysis of research samples and findings, creating new data from digging in on old craters around our globe.
+https://www.space.com/stargazing/meteor-showers/arizonas-meteor-crater-is-still-revealing-new-secrets-50-000-years-later