[meteorite-list] NASA Discovers Life's Building Blocks Are Common in Space

[Ron Baalke]

John Bluck                         Oct. 11, 2005
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5026 or 604-9000
E-mail: jbluck at mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 05-53AR

NASA DISCOVERS LIFE'S BUILDING BLOCKS ARE COMMON IN SPACE

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 Ames Research Center, located in California's 
Silicon Valley. He is principal author of a study detailing the 
team's findings that appears in the Oct. 10 issue of the 
Astrophysical Journal.

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

"Much of the chemistry of life, including DNA, requires organic 
molecules that contain nitrogen," said team member Louis Allamandola, 
an astrochemist at NASA Ames. "Chlorophyll, the substance that 
enables photosynthesis 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, the seeds of life are sewn," Allamandola said.

The NASA Ames team studied the infrared "fingerprint" of PANHs in 
laboratory experiments and with computer simulations to learn more 
about infrared radiation that astronomers have detected coming from 
space. They used data from the European Space Agency's Infrared Space 
Observatory satellite.

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 more information about this research on the Web, visit:

http://www.astrochem.org/PANHS.html

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

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