Space or Earth for the initial formation of life?
In the new paper, “Formation of extraterrestrial peptides and their derivatives,” published in the journal, Science Advances, researchers have put forth the idea that instead of a spontaneous transition from non-living to living matter under certain primordial conditions on Earth, delivery from space could instead provide distinct advantages due to an ability to deliver a wider range of organic molecules in concentrated form.
Ion signal on the masses of the specified molecules as a function of the retention time from ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the extract from room temperature residual ([13]C, CO, and NH3 reactants). The appearance times of ions from chemical standards are depicted by the dotted lines. The positive identification of respective molecules is indicated by green checkmarks, while a red cross stands for negative identification. Source: Science Advances.
The abstract follows.
Abstract
The formation of protein precursors, due to the condensation of atomic carbon under the low-temperature conditions of the molecular phases of the interstellar medium, opens alternative pathways for the origin of life. We perform peptide synthesis under conditions prevailing in space and provide a comprehensive analytic characterization of its products. The application of 13C allowed us to confirm the suggested pathway of peptide formation that proceeds due to the polymerization of aminoketene molecules that are formed in the C + CO + NH3 reaction. Here, we address the question of how the efficiency of peptide production is modified by the presence of water molecules. We demonstrate that although water slightly reduces the efficiency of polymerization of aminoketene, it does not prevent the formation of peptides.
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