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Topic Name: Interstellar Space Molecules: key to life found in space
Category: STAR (Space, Telecommunications & Radioscience)
Research persons: Susana Iglesias Groth, Speckled, Anibal Arturo Garcia, Jonay Gonzalez, David Lambert
Location: Canary Islands, Spain
Details
A team of researchers led by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary
Islands (IAC) has managed to detect naphthalene, a molecule key to the
development of life in space, 700 light years from Earth.
This molecule is one of the most complex found so far in the interstellar
medium, said yesterday as the Madrid daily El Mundo.
The naphthalene, combined with water, ammonia and ultraviolet radiation
produces a large portion of the amino acids essential for the development of
life.
Its detection suggests that a significant portion of the key components in
the prebiotic chemistry land may have been present in the material from which
the Solar System was formed.
Researchers at the IAC Susana Iglesias Groth, speckled and Anibal Arturo
Garcia, in collaboration with Jonay González, the Paris Observatory, and David
Lambert of the University of Texas, have just published these findings in the
journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A team of scientists led by researchers from the Instituto Astrofísica de
Canarias (IAC) has succeeded in identifying naphthalene, one of the most complex
molecules yet discovered in the interstellar medium. The detection of this
molecule suggests that a large number of the key components in prebiotic
terrestrial chemistry could have been present in the interstellar matter from
which the Solar System was formed.
The researcher added that he intends to "investigate whether there are other
more complex hydrocarbons in the same region and also the presence of amino
acids."
Subjected to ultraviolet radiation and combined with water and ammonia, very
common in the interstellar medium, the naphthalene reacts and is capable of
producing a wide variety of amino acids and also naphthoquinone, the precursor
molecules of vitamins.
This whole series of molecules play a crucial role in the development of life
as it is known on Earth. In fact, naphthalene has been found in meteorites that
fall to Earth and that much more intensively bombed in the periods prior to the
emergence of life.
The discovery of these researchers also opens the door to understanding one
of the most intriguing of the spectroscopy (study of the interaction between
electromagnetic radiation and matter) of the interstellar medium. Over the last
80 years are aware of the existence of hundreds of spectroscopic bands
associated with interstellar material, known as diffuse bands, but until now had
not been able to identify the causative agent of any of them.
"Our result shows that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene
are responsible for the bands diffuse and be present on a widespread basis in
the interstellar medium," said the researcher.
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