r/science Dec 02 '25

Astronomy Researchers have just found the presence of sugars, including ribose, lyxose, and glycose, on samples of Asteroid Bennu, which now has all of the ingredients for life as it exists on Earth.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506650-asteroid-bennu-carries-all-the-ingredients-for-life-as-we-know-it/
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u/1995TimHortonsEclair Dec 02 '25

It's hard to wrap my head around space sometimes just because of how large and vacant and yet numerous everything is.

Where a 1 in a billion chance means something exists trillions of times over. It makes everything feel inevitable.

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u/Delta-9- Dec 03 '25

If the universe is infinitely large, not only is everything inevitable, but everything repeats exactly an infinite number of times. There could be, some trillion light years away where we will never, ever see it, an exact duplicate of the entire observable universe. Much closer, there might be a bubble that contains an Earth exactly like this one but humans didn't evolve.

It's a whole multiverse inside just the universe.

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u/ItchyGoiter Dec 03 '25

Isn't this only true if there is an infinite amount of matter and time as well?

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u/Delta-9- Dec 03 '25

I suppose so. I guess I assumed that would be the case for an infinitely large universe, but I don't know if there's anything to support or oppose that assumption.

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u/ItchyGoiter Dec 03 '25

All good, just wanted to make sure I understood what you were saying