https://phys.org/news/2020-11-blocks-life-stars.html
Building blocks of life can form long before stars:
An international team of scientists have shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can form under the harsh conditions that govern chemistry in space.
The results, published in Nature Astronomy, suggest that glycine, and very likely other amino acids, form in dense interstellar clouds well before they transform into new stars and planets.
Comets are the most pristine material in our Solar System and reflect the molecular composition present at the time our Sun and planets were just about to form. The detection of glycine in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and in samples returned to Earth from the Stardust mission suggests that amino acids, such as glycine, form long before stars. However until recently, it was thought that glycine formation required energy, setting clear constraints to the environment in which it can be formed.
In the new study the international team of astrophysicists and astrochemical modelers, mostly based at the Laboratory for Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, have shown that it is possible for glycine to form on the surface of icy dust grains, in the absence of energy, through 'dark chemistry'. The findings contradict previous studies that have suggested UV radiation was required to produce this molecule.
more at link..................
the paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01249-0
A non-energetic mechanism for glycine formation in the interstellar medium:
Abstract:
The detection of the amino acid glycine and its amine precursor methylamine on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta mission provides strong evidence for a cosmic origin of amino acids on Earth. How and when such molecules form along the process of star formation remains debated. Here we report the laboratory detection of glycine formed in the solid phase through atom and radical–radical addition surface reactions under dark interstellar cloud conditions. Our experiments, supported by astrochemical models, suggest that glycine forms without the need for ‘energetic’ irradiation (such as ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays) in interstellar water-rich ices, where it remains preserved, during a much earlier star-formation stage than previously assumed. We also confirm that solid methylamine is an important side-reaction product. A prestellar formation of glycine on ice grains provides the basis for a complex and ubiquitous prebiotic chemistry in space enriching the chemical content of planet-forming material.
https://wayf.springernature.com/?redirect_uri=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01249-0
Building blocks of life can form long before stars:
An international team of scientists have shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can form under the harsh conditions that govern chemistry in space.
The results, published in Nature Astronomy, suggest that glycine, and very likely other amino acids, form in dense interstellar clouds well before they transform into new stars and planets.
Comets are the most pristine material in our Solar System and reflect the molecular composition present at the time our Sun and planets were just about to form. The detection of glycine in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and in samples returned to Earth from the Stardust mission suggests that amino acids, such as glycine, form long before stars. However until recently, it was thought that glycine formation required energy, setting clear constraints to the environment in which it can be formed.
In the new study the international team of astrophysicists and astrochemical modelers, mostly based at the Laboratory for Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, have shown that it is possible for glycine to form on the surface of icy dust grains, in the absence of energy, through 'dark chemistry'. The findings contradict previous studies that have suggested UV radiation was required to produce this molecule.
more at link..................
the paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01249-0
A non-energetic mechanism for glycine formation in the interstellar medium:
Abstract:
The detection of the amino acid glycine and its amine precursor methylamine on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta mission provides strong evidence for a cosmic origin of amino acids on Earth. How and when such molecules form along the process of star formation remains debated. Here we report the laboratory detection of glycine formed in the solid phase through atom and radical–radical addition surface reactions under dark interstellar cloud conditions. Our experiments, supported by astrochemical models, suggest that glycine forms without the need for ‘energetic’ irradiation (such as ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays) in interstellar water-rich ices, where it remains preserved, during a much earlier star-formation stage than previously assumed. We also confirm that solid methylamine is an important side-reaction product. A prestellar formation of glycine on ice grains provides the basis for a complex and ubiquitous prebiotic chemistry in space enriching the chemical content of planet-forming material.
https://wayf.springernature.com/?redirect_uri=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01249-0