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Are the ‘Seeds of Life’ Assembled in Space? A Stunning Discovery Says It’s Possible
NO LOC, JUL 24 – Seventeen complex organic molecules, including precursors to amino acids and sugars, were identified in a young star's disc, indicating potential widespread prebiotic chemistry in space.
- This week, astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul employed the ALMA telescope to identify complex organic molecules within the circumstellar material surrounding the young star V883 Orionis, located approximately 1,305 light-years from Earth.
- The detection occurred during V883 Orionis's accretion burst phase, a turbulent transitional period thought to destroy molecules but now shown to host surviving complex chemistry.
- The researchers detected seventeen distinct complex organic molecules in the V883 Orionis disk, including compounds such as glycolonitrile—a precursor to amino acids and nucleobases—and ethylene glycol, both of which play key roles in the chemical pathways leading to DNA and RNA, indicating active molecular synthesis in young protoplanetary systems.
- Kamber Schwarz said, "Now it appears the opposite is true," noting complex molecules survive this phase, while co-author Tushar Suhasaria explained ethylene glycol forms by UV irradiation of ethanolamine recently discovered in space.
- The research team’s study, conducted by Abubakar Fadul and colleagues, reveals that protoplanetary disks retain and continue to produce complex organic molecules, which may serve as early ingredients for life and merit additional spectral analysis to identify further organics.
15 Articles
15 Articles
It is not the first time that astronomers detect organic molecules in space. Essential ingredients for life that increasingly seem to be everywhere, which leads them to think that life, or at least its basic components, are part of the 'natural chemistry' of the Universe. After all, molecular 'seeds' such as these gave rise to the whole life of our planet, and it is logical to think that they flourished in many other places as well.The last piec…
Are the ‘Seeds of Life’ Assembled in Space? A Stunning Discovery Says It’s Possible
(Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/T. Müller (MPIA/HdA)) Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, a team of astronomers using the ALMA telescope has made a landmark discovery in the search for life’s origins, detecting complex organic molecules—including ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile—in the disc of the young star V883 Orionis. In our analysis, we’ll explore 1) how this discovery strengthens the case that life’s chemical precursors…
Life, as it exists on Earth, is based on complex organic molecules. In a far distant star system, researchers are now discovering substances that are considered to be the precursor of these compounds. Researchers suspect a process that is widespread in the universe.
Scientists, led by the German Max Planck Institute of Astronomy, have found signs of complex organic molecules -precursors of sugars and amino acids- in a planetary formation disk. The evolution of life - they maintain- could have its origin in outer space, EFE reviews. Using the ALMA telescope in Chile, the team, directed [...] The entry The evolution of life could have its origin in outer space was first published in Information Focus.
The first attempt detection of prebiotic molecules on a planet-forming disk, around the star V883 Orionis, suggests that chemical evolution begins before the formation of planets: therefore, the basic components of life may not be limited to local conditions, but could be formed widely throughout the Universe.
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