 In 2019, the detection of extraterrestrial sugars in meteorites implied the possibility that extraterrestrial sugars may have contributed to forming functional biopolymers like RNA.In 2020, detailed study of an Allende meteorite named "Acfer 086", have identified an iron and lithium-containing protein, named hemolithin by the researchers, of extraterrestrial origin, first such discovery in a meteorite.The chemistry of life may have begun shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, during a habitable epoch when the Universe was only 10–17 million years old.