In a move that brings us closer to understanding the cosmic origins of life, scientists at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UH) have synthesized a molecule critical to the metabolism of living organisms under conditions mimicking the cold, icy reaches of deep space.
The breakthrough, detailed in a recent publication in Science Advances, demonstrates that the building blocks of life could initially have been formed far beyond Earth, offering fresh insights into the long-standing question of how life began in the universe.
The research, led by Professor Ralf I. Kaiser of the UH Mānoa Department of Chemistry, alongside postdoctoral fellows Jia Wang and Joshua H. Marks, and in collaboration with computational chemist Professor Ryan C. Fortenberry from the University of Mississippi, centers on the formation of glyceric acid.
Glyceric acid, the simplest sugar acid, plays a pivotal role in glycolysis—the process by which living cells break down food into energy. The team’s experiments simulated outer space’s icy, carbon dioxide-rich environments, using interstellar model ice coated on nanoparticles and subjected to proxies of Galactic Cosmic Rays.
At the heart of their experiments was the synthesis of racemic glyceric acid at the exceedingly low temperature of 10 Kelvin (-441.67 F). Researchers meticulously observed the entire process using photo-ionization lasers, allowing the detection of these molecules in the gas phase.
Synthesizing glyceric acid under these harsh conditions provides a plausible scenario for the genesis of essential life components in the frigid vastness of space.
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