As reported by TIMES NEWS NETWORK
20-9-2012
BIRTH OF A NEW IDEA
Life began on ice? Nasa to find out
Water & Organics Began Journey To Earth On
Icy Particles, Say Researchers
Washington: To better understand the origin of life on Earth, Nasa
researchers led by an Indian scientist are creating concoctions of
organics or carbon bearing molecules, on ice in a lab.
The research at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena, California is the first direct look at the organic
reactions that take place on icy particles in the frigid reaches of
our solar system. Scientists think that the basic ingredients of
life, including water and organics, began their journey to Earth on
these ice particles, a Nasa statement said.
The ice and organics would have found their way into comets and
asteroids, which then fell to Earth, delivering “prebiotic”
ingredients that could have jump-started life. The various steps
needed to go from icy organics to slime molds are not clear, but the
new findings help explain how the process works.
“The very basic steps needed for the evolution of life may have
started in the coldest regions of our universe. We were surprised to
see organic chemistry brewing up on ice, at these very cold
temperatures in our lab,” said Murthy Gudipati, lead author of the
new study at JPL.
The organics are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or
PAHs. These carbonrich molecules can be found on Earth as combustion
products. Gudipati and colleague Rui Yang of JPL used their lab
set-up to mimic the environment of icy PAH molecules in the quiet
cold of space, at temperatures as low as minus 268 degrees
Celsius.
The results revealed that the PAHs had transformed and
incorporated hydrogen atoms into their structure and lost their
circular, aromatic bonds. This is the type of change that would need
to occur if the material were to eventually become amino acids and
nucleotides-bits and pieces of protein and DNA, respectively. “PAHs
are strong, stubborn molecules, so we were surprised to see these
changes,” said Gudipati.
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