Posted on 12/31/2005 1:32:58 AM PST by neverdem
Partial Ingredients For DNA And Protein Found Around Star NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered some of life's most basic ingredients in the dust swirling around a young star. The ingredients - gaseous precursors to DNA and protein - were detected in the star's terrestrial planet zone, a region where rocky planets such as Earth are thought to be born.
The findings represent the first time that these gases, called acetylene and hydrogen cyanide, have been found in a terrestrial planet zone outside of our own.
"This infant system might look a lot like ours did billions of years ago, before life arose on Earth," said Fred Lahuis of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the Dutch space research institute called SRON. Lahuis is lead author of a paper to be published in the Jan. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Lahuis and his colleagues spotted the organic, or carbon-containing, gases around a star called IRS 46. The star is in the Ophiuchus (pronounced OFF-ee-YOO-kuss), or "snake carrier," constellation about 375 light-years from Earth. This constellation harbors a huge cloud of gas and dust in the process of a major stellar baby boom. Like most of the young stars here and elsewhere, IRS 46 is circled by a flat disk of spinning gas and dust that might ultimately clump together to form planets.
When the astronomers probed this star's disk with Spitzer's powerful infrared spectrometer instrument, they were surprised to find the molecular "barcodes" of large amounts of acetylene and hydrogen cyanide gases, as well as carbon dioxide gas. The team observed 100 similar young stars, but only one, IRS 46, showed unambiguous signs of the organic mix.
"The star's disk was oriented in just the right way to allow us to peer into it," said Lahuis.
The Spitzer data also revealed that the organic gases are hot. So hot, in fact, that they are most likely located near the star, about the same distance away as Earth is from our sun.
"The gases are very warm, close to or somewhat above the boiling point of water on Earth," said Dr. Adwin Boogert of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "These high temperatures helped to pinpoint the location of the gases in the disk."
Organic gases such as those found around IRS 46 are found in our own solar system, in the atmospheres of the giant planets and Saturn's moon Titan, and on the icy surfaces of comets. They have also been seen around massive stars by the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, though these stars are thought to be less likely than sun-like stars to form life-bearing planets.
Here on Earth, the molecules are believed to have arrived billions of years ago, possibly via comets or comet dust that rained down from the sky. Acetylene and hydrogen cyanide link up together in the presence of water to form some of the chemical units of life's most essential compounds, DNA and protein. These chemical units are several of the 20 amino acids that make up protein and one of the four chemical bases that make up DNA.
"If you add hydrogen cyanide, acetylene and water together in a test tube and give them an appropriate surface on which to be concentrated and react, you'll get a slew of organic compounds including amino acids and a DNA purine base called adenine," said Dr. Geoffrey Blake of Caltech, a co-author of the paper. "And now, we can detect these same molecules in the planet zone of a star hundreds of light-years away."
Follow-up observations with the W.M. Keck Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii confirmed the Spitzer findings and suggested the presence of a wind emerging from the inner region of IRS 46's disk. This wind will blow away debris in the disk, clearing the way for the possible formation of Earth-like planets.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. JPL is a division of Caltech. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph was built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Its development was led by Dr. Jim Houck of Cornell.
For graphics and more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer . For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/home/ .
Editor's Note: The original news release can be found here.
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by National Aeronautics And Space Administration.
I thought this was gonna be another Clintoon thread.
No, what it actually means is that Michael Moore now has his own event horizon and is forming planets.
When acetylene and hydrogen cyanide undergo positive order and produce Homo erectus, make sure you e-mail me.
Hummm....I found some partial ingredients to DNA while cleaning out my refrigerator yesterday.
Yes, I was talking to both sides here.
Cheers!
If the microwave region can be observed, then the rotational spectrum can be used to calculate the temperature of the materials.
Does the rotational spectrum as a function of T vary with concentration (consider rotational-to vibrational, rotational-to-translational inelastic collisions as well...?)
I don't know about evo guys, but cyanide is part of the soup you need to get proteins and amino acids going - at least in an Earth lab. It's like the people that cook meth use 6 or 7 chemicals in all kinds of strange forms and mix the stuff together and cook it and then reduce it and wash it and get meth. It's more complex than most people do even in college chemistry. Yes the evo people will jump all over it. Is proof only that the stuff is out there. Quantity and other catalyst items and proper sequencing would be needed to get something going.
Even if it is 1%, the number of stars that is is mind blowing. Where's Sagan to say "billions and billions"?
The rotational modes of a molecule are much more sensitive to temperature than the vibrational modes. They both have temperature dependence, but you get a greater distribution of rotational states than you do with vibrational states over the same temperature range. By knowing what the materials are and the pressure range, the rotational spectra can be matched with those recorded under known conditions or computer modeled. Even though it is a gas disk around a star, the pressures are likely more like a vacuum than something like stmospheric pressure. Under these conditions, intermolecular collisions would not contribure significantly to the spectrum. It's not a direct function of temperature, like temperature is a function of the wavelength maximum of black body radiation. Astonomers and microwave spectroscopists do a lot of collaboration on thing like this. The organic chemicals in space are highly unsaturated hydrocarbons that could never exist in the atmospheric conditions on Earth (e.g. molecules like H-C=C=C=C=C-H) and their existence is known only through careful, temperature-sensitive modeling.
Most of what I know about these chemicals is that they must be handled with care. For example, an acetylene tank should be stored always upright. Should implies obligation. If an actetylene tank is found on its side, it should be treated as an IED. Hydrogen cyanide, and even oxygen are deadly in the wrong place at the wrong time. Interesting that we seem to be thriving in such a hostile environment.
Interesting indeed. Which reminds me that phosphorus has its dangers, too, when oxygen is around.
I understand that. the problem I have is with this statement:
The findings represent the first time that these gases, called acetylene and hydrogen cyanide, have been found in a terrestrial planet zone outside of our own.
Which followed:
The ingredients - gaseous precursors to DNA and protein - were detected in the star's terrestrial planet zone, a region where rocky planets such as Earth are thought to be born.
Claiming, or at least strongly suggesting, that the presence of acetylene and hydrogen cyanide are precursors to DNA and protein is way too much of a stretch. Talk about speculation.
Don't be surprised if these 'discoveries' are used as the basis for an attempt to obtain large federal grants for 'additional study'.
" well the information in DNA of early life was just produced by random chance..."
Nobody says this. The laws of chemistry are not random.
" No evidence of a type of DNA has been found
which provides the information for a living organism that has not come from some preexisting life. none ..why have we not found this basic DNA in our environment?? where is it??"
It would be eaten as soon as it was formed. The world is no longer a safe place for organic compounds to form unchecked.
ID is a gutless choice for people who are too lazy/scared to do real research.
This is not speculation or a stretch. It is basic organic chemistry. Or do you doubt chemistry, too? Acetylene and hydrogen cyanide can form certain amino acids. Amino acids will react (specific reaction is condensation of an amine and a carboxylic acid) to form polypeptides, which can further react (same reaction) to form protiens. The article does not claim to form a specific, biologically active protein. The chemistry is there and any biochemist will confirm this. These materials have been seen in other regions of space. This article is exciting because these materials are found in the same temperature region of that star system that our planet formed in our system.
Right, you took the issue from the other end. I was initially wondering whether the spectra were recorded / interpreted at atmospheric T and P such that molecular collisions were influencing the distribution of states, and that any such spectra would be "mis-calibrated" if you were for conditions in space.
My doctorate is in gas phase inelastic scattering; I had friendly relations with other such folk who were at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, so I'm familiar with such collaborations. However, I left academia long ago to work in the business world.
Cheers!
Those hazards are specific with working with those chemical in our environment. The cosmic environment where they were found certainly is not hospitable to us.
THat's some very interesting work. My PhD is in vibrational spectroscopy so I have some knowledge of rotational spectroscopy. I've also found the industrial/business world much more rewarding. Amazing how much knowledge is there. Happy New Year.
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