Researchers Identify New Organic Molecule in Space
(Source:
CORDIS : News)
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) have detected an amino-acid-like molecule in space for the first time. As they report in a research paper in the
Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, the molecule, amino acetonitrile, was discovered in a giant gas cloud named 'Large Molecule Heimat' near the galactic centre in the constellation Sagittarius.
Amino acetonitrile was successfully identified with the help of a 30-metre radio telescope in southern Spain. The find was then confirmed by two radio telescope arrays in France and Australia. While astronomers have managed to identify more than 140 molecules - mostly organic or carbon-based - in interstellar space since 1965, they have been on the lookout for the simplest amino acid, glycine, for a long time without success. Amino acetonitrile, however, the researchers think is likely to be a direct precursor of glycine. The researcher report that finding amino acetonitrile has extended insight into the chemistry of dense, hot star-forming regions. "I am sure we will be able to identify in the future many new, even more complex organic molecules in the interstellar gas. We already have several candidates," adds Karl Menten, director at the MPIfR.
The search for interstellar amino acids is key to understanding the
origin of life on Earth, as amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, without which the evolution of life would not have been possible. So far, amino acids have been found in meteorites on Earth, but not in interstellar space.
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