Life’s Building Blocks are Common in Space

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Burgess Shale

A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with nitrogen. The blue balls are the carbon atoms that make the chicken-wire shaped PAH skeleton and the yellow balls show the hydrogen atoms which are attached to the edge. The red shows the position of a nitrogen atom which fits almost perfectly within the molecule.

A team of NASA exobiology researchers revealed today 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 Douglas Hudgins, an astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. He is principal author of a study detailing the team's findings that appears in the Oct. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Life’s Building Blocks are Common in Space

"NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has shown complex organic moleculescalled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are found in every nookand cranny of our galaxy. While this is important to astronomers, ithas been of little interest to astrobiologists, scientists who searchfor life beyond Earth. Normal PAHs aren't really important to biology,"Hudgins said. "However, our work shows the lion's share of the PAHs inspace also carry nitrogen in their structures. That changes everything."

"Much of the chemistry of life, including DNA, requires organicmolecules that contain nitrogen," said team member Louis Allamandola, anastrochemist at Ames. "Chlorophyll, the substance that enablesphotosynthesis in plants, is a good example of this class of compounds,called polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles, or PANHs. Ironically,PANHs are formed in abundance around dying stars. So even in death, theseeds of life are sewn," Allamandola said.

The NASA team studied the infrared "fingerprint" of PANHs in laboratoryexperiments and with computer simulations to learn more about infrared radiation that astronomers have detected coming from space. They useddata from the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatorysatellite.

High-resolution images pertaining to this research are available on the Web at:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/spitzer.html
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/home .

NASA Spitzer Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy M81, located some 12 million light years from Earth. The infrared radiation emitted by polycyclic nitrogen-containing aromatic hydrocarbon (PANH) molecules is shown in red. This emission is excited by star (and planet) formation along the edges of the spiral arms.

Scientists find clues that the path leading to the Origin of Life begins in Deep Space

Moffett Field, California.-- Duplicating the harsh conditions of cold interstellar space, scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center have shown that nitrogen containing aromatic molecules, chemical compounds that could be important for life's origin, are widespread throughout space.
for more information: http://www.astrochem.org/PANHS.html