Astronomers have discovered a cloud of frozen sugar near the center of the Milky Way. The sugar, glycolaldehyde, offers some tempting evidence to the
theory of life originating in outer space.
news.scotsman.com
ASTRONOMERS have found a cloud of frozen sugar near the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, it was revealed yesterday.
The discovery heightens the possibility of early building blocks of life originating in interstellar space.
Molecules of a simple sugar, glycolaldehyde, were detected in a cloud of gas and dust called Sagittarius B2 about 26,000 light years away.
Observations indicated large quantities of the sugar frozen to a temperature only a few degrees above absolute zero, the point at which all molecular
movement stops.
Glycolaldehyde consists of two carbon atoms, two oxygen atoms and four hydrogen atoms.
This type of molecule is known as a two-carbon sugar. Significantly, it can react with a three-carbon sugar to produce the five-carbon sugar ribose -
the molecule which forms the backbone of DNA.
The discovery adds to the growing evidence that the foundations of life can be traced to chemical reactions within interstellar clouds.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
Besides sounding like a chocolate manufacturers dream, this could lend at lot of weight to the extraterrestrial origin of life argument.
Related News Links:
www.spaceref.com
[edit on 9-23-2004 by Valhall]
