The evolutionary origin of the genetic material employed by all living organisms on Earth has been impossible to elucidate. Ribonucleic acid, RNA, has been assumed to precede deoxyribonucleic acid but the evolutionary origin of RNA itself- and thereby the origin of life - remained unknown. We have now shown for the first time that ribose, the sugar that provides the central molecular subunit of the RNA genetic material in all living organisms, may have formed in cometary ices. This finding does not explain the molecular origins of the appearance of life on Earth, but it provides important molecular insights into the underlying chemical and astrophysical processes.
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