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Researchers in London have found that at least one of the earliest precursors of life can form in interstellar space without the need for sunlight, in a process known as ‘dark chemistry’.
The prebiotic molecule in question is the amino acid glycine, one of the simplest and most fundamental building blocks of life.
It was previously thought to require irradiation from a star to form, but a team of scientists studying the origins of life have now discovered that it can form in the unforgiving wasteland of interstellar space, away from starlight and the gravitational pull of stars. planets.
Glycine was previously found on comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, so the boffins conducted laboratory experiments and models to see if they could recreate the prebiotic molecule using “Dark chemistry”, which occurs without the presence of energy radiation.
Through a series of independent experiments, the team found that methylamine, itself a precursor of glycine, could form without the need for a star’s energy in the harshness of interstellar space.
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Astronomers found methylamine in the interstellar medium and detected it on comet 67P / CG, so their “dark chemistry hypothesis” was off to a good start.
Next, they introduced methylamine-enriched ice into an ultra-high vacuum system called SURFRESIDE2, which was custom designed to mimic conditions found in interstellar space. The system temperature was lowered to 13 Kelvin (-260 degrees Celsius or -436 degrees Fahrenheit) to allow for ice formation in the chamber.
To their amazement, glycine was formed. They then produced astrochemical models to validate what they found, taking their findings from a day of experiments and extrapolating them over a span of millions of years. They found that glycine could form in small but significant quantities with sufficient time.
Lead researcher Sergio Ioppolo, of Queen Mary University of London, explained: “In the laboratory we were able to simulate the conditions in dark interstellar clouds where the cold dust particles are covered by thin layers of ice and then processed by the atoms that cause the fragmentation of the precursor species and the recombination of reactive intermediates.”
“Once formed, glycine can also become a precursor to other complex organic molecules” added the astrochemist.
The research is yet another step back towards the dawn of time and the origins of every species that we have yet to discover in the universe.
The team extrapolated that, at least in principle, other amino acids such as alanine and serine could also form in dark clouds in interstellar space. This “Enriched organic molecular inventory” it is then collected by passing comets and meteorites before finally being delivered to young planets, such as Earth.
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