NASA: Organic Chemicals Common in Space
Posted on: Thursday, 13 October 2005, 18:00 CDT
A team of NASA exobiology researchers in California has determined organic chemicals that play a crucial role in the chemistry of life are common in space.
Our work shows a class of compounds that is critical to biochemistry is prevalent throughout the universe, said lead study author Douglas Hudgins, an astronomer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has shown complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found in every nook and cranny of our galaxy, said Hudgins. While that is important to astronomers, it has been of little interest to astrobiologists, scientists who search for life beyond Earth. Normal PAHs aren't really important to biology, he said.
However, our work shows the lion's share of the PAHs in space also carry nitrogen in their structures, he added. That changes everything.
Louis Allamandola, a NASA astrochemist, said much of the chemistry of life requires organic molecules that contain nitrogen.
Ironically, PANHs are formed in abundance around dying stars. So even in death, the seeds of life are sewn, Allamandola said.
The study appears in the Oct. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Source: United Press International
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