A government official said Monday that samples from an asteroid delivered to Earth by Japan's Hayabusa2 space probe.

In late 2020 included more than 20 types of amino acids, demonstrating for the first time that organic molecules exist on asteroids in space.

The discovery could contain clues to understanding the origins of life, the education ministry stated, because amino acids are required for all living organisms to form proteins.

Hayabusa2 delivered about 5.4 grammes of surface material from the Ryugu asteroid, which is located over 300 million kilometres distant, to Earth in December 2020, after a six-year mission.

Ryugu's mission was to discover the secrets of the solar system's and life's beginnings. Water and organic debris were found in the samples, according to previous analyses.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and research institutions across the country, including the University of Tokyo and Hiroshima University, commenced a comprehensive analysis of the sample in 2021.

Although it is unknown how amino acids arrived on ancient Earth, one idea suggests that they were transported by meteorites, as amino acids have been found in a meteorite discovered on the surface of the planet. However, they could have been linked to the earth as well.When meteors contact the atmosphere, they burn up and become polluted with germs from the ground.

On March 12, 2021, in Sagamihara City Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, a capsule used to send asteroid samples to Earth from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 space project is on display. (Kyodo)

Hayabusa2 was revolutionary in that it retrieved subterranean elements that had not been weathered by sunlight or cosmic rays, and delivered them to Earth without being exposed to the atmosphere.

Hayabusa2 launched from Earth in 2014 and arrived in June 2018 over Ryugu after travelling 3.2 billion kilometres in an elliptical orbit around the Sun for almost three years.