Glycine, an essential component of life, has the ability to undergo a transformation into new stars following the creation of dense interstellar clouds.

According to the study disclosed in Nature Astronomy, glycine and other related products can form in dense interstellar clouds before the progression towards new stars and planets.

Comets are made of the so-called ‘unprocessed’ material, such as the dust and gas from early Solar System and therefore, cometary material closely resembles that of the Sun and the Solar System’s planets. prima, the detection of glycine in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and in the samples brought back to earth by the Stardust mission lead to the undeniable knowledge that simple amino acid like glycine existed before the formation of stars several billion years ago.

Before, they thought that the synthesis of glycine was an energetic process which gives a constraint on the synthesis of glycine in certain conditions.

This team of astrophysicists and astrochemical modelers from the Laboratory for Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, in the recent study proposed how glycine or the simplest protein building block could form on the surface of the icy dust grains through the “dark chemistry” that do not require energy. These results contradict earlier research done on similar bases that proved that UV light is vital for the formation of this compound.

Dr. Sergio Ioppolo, the lead author of the study from Queen Mary University of London, explained: ”Dark chemistry involves chemical reactions that do not include the potential energy of radiation. ” In our simulation experiments, we were able to mimic the situation in the dark cloud of interstellar space where the dust particles are mantled with thin films of ice. The ions are then interacted with atoms resulting in the breaking and forming of the precursor species as well as the reactive intermediates.

Precursors to other complex molecules

The scientists first demonstrated that according to the state-of-the-art theoretical simulation, a precursor species of glycine, methylamine, could in fact form in the coma of comet 67P. Further investigations carried out with a state of the art UHV-setup including several atomic beam lines and appropriate diagnostic tools revealed that glycine could be synthesized as well and that water ice was required for this reaction.

The experiment also confirmed in subsequent research by the use of Astrochemical models to extrapolate the data obtained in the experiment taken on a laboratory time scale for a day to interstellar time scale which can be stretched to millions of years. According to Professor Herma Cuppen of Radboud University in Nijmegen, who contributed to the article through a number of modeling simulations, “From this we find that low but substantial amounts of glycine can be formed in space with time.

”Harold Linnartz, the director of the Laboratory for Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory, noted that this work has important implications: ‘These chemical substances that are considered as the fundamental precursors of life arise at a stage that even predates the advent of stars and planets . ’; ‘This point to the fact that glycine can form more extensively in space and is protected in the mass of ice prior to the incorporation in comets and planetAs Dr. Ioppolo also pointed out, “Once formed, glycine can also become a precursor to other complex organic molecules. Additional functional groups can theoretically be added to the glycine backbone using the same process, ultimately yielding more amino acids in black clouds of space, like alanine or serine.

Finally, as has been seen with our very earth and many other planets, this increased inventory of organic chemicals is delivered to new born planets, through such celestial entities as comets.

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