I’m Nora, the station’s science and environment columnist, with a chronicle about what asteroid samples can tell us about life’s ingredients.

A columnist regularly writes articles giving information or opinions on a subject.

I’m Nora, the station’s science and environment columnist, with a chronicle about what asteroid samples can tell us about life’s ingredients.

These are pieces of material taken from an asteroid for study.

Nucleobases are molecules that help store genetic information in DNA and RNA.

This is information in cells that helps determine how living things develop and function.

Finding these molecules there shows that the ingredients can exist beyond Earth.

Here, this means in places outside our planet.

Two samples cannot answer that larger question, but they add a clear piece of evidence about the chemistry of the early Solar System.

This is one fact or result that helps support an idea.