We keep finding the raw material of DNA in asteroids—what's it telling us?

The persistent discovery of nucleobases—the raw material of DNA—in asteroids delivers the strongest evidence yet that life's building blocks are cosmic commonplaces. In 2025 alone, scientists identified three previously undetected nucleobases in samples from asteroid Ryugu, raising the total to seven. The data suggests that over 1% of carbon-rich asteroids carry these compounds, a frequency that forces a fundamental rethink of how life may have seeded Earth from space.