Scientists have discovered a new kind of organic molecule in a giant gas cloud all the way out in interstellar space, indicating that more complex molecules, which are the core building blocks of life, can potentially form outside of Earth, and could even be widespread in space.
The discovery came after the scientists analyzed a star-forming gas cloud that is around 27,000 light years away from Earth. In the gas cloud, they detected an iso-propyl cyanide molecule with a unique structure that is common in life-forming molecules, such as amino acids.
Finding a simple organic chemical in space is not exactly new, but a carbon-bearing molecule with a branched structure is new, indicating that biologically crucial molecules can form not only on Earth, but in deep space too.
“Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very important for life as we know it. The question in the background is: is there life somewhere else in the galaxy?” Doctor Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy told the BBC.
“The enormous abundance of iso-propyl cyanide suggests that branched molecules may in fact be the rule, rather than the exception, in the interstellar medium,” stated Robin Garrod, an astrochemist at Cornell University and a co-author of the paper, according to astrobiology.com.
“There seems to be quite a lot of it, which would indicate that this more complex organic structure is possibly very common, maybe even the norm, when it comes to simple organic molecules in space,” Professor Matt Griffin, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Cardiff University said.
Read more about the story at Space.
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