Whether or not you believe in life outside of our solar system, the
fact that we are all here means that the stuff we're made of must have
come from somewhere. After studying meteorites and discovering
ready-made components of DNA present, NASA has concluded that the
building blocks of life as we know it may have crashed down on Earth
from above.

Researchers at the Goddard Space Flight Center discovered portions of
DNA on chunks of crashed space rock in both Antarctica and Australia.
The extraterrestrial visitors contained various types of nucleobases, which
are thought to be essential in the creation of DNA, and life in general. The
scientists were able to isolate the compounds and prove that they weren't
created here on Earth. This was particularly important, as critics often cite
contamination as the reason for these compounds appearing on meteorites
that have been studied in the past.

The team also concluded that certain space rocks — depending on their
makeup and speed — work like manufacturing facilities for these
biological precursors. The implications of the discovery are far-reaching,
and suggest that humanity may owe its existence to a well-placed meteorite
in the early days of the Earth, and that without it the planet might be a rocky,
watery wasteland.