New research reveals that the building blocks of life, such as amino acids, form in dark interstellar clouds long before regions of gas and dust are transformed into stars and planets.

An international team of scientists led by experts from Queen Mary University in London has mimicked the conditions found in dark interstellar dust clouds.

They found that glycine, a simple amino acid, could create an important building block of life under the harsh conditions that govern the chemistry of space.

This suggests that glycine and other amino acids can form in dense interstellar clouds before being transformed into new stars and planets.

Amino acids are stored in comets – the oldest earliest material in our solar system – and carry them to young planets.

“The building blocks of proteins associated with life on Earth will form in the early stages of star formation and will last until the planetary systems are established,” said the lead author. Sergio Ipolo told MailOnline.

Comets are the most primitive material in our solar system and reflect the molecular structure of our Sun and planets at the time of their formation.

67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko Glycine is found in comet coma and samples returned to Earth from the Stardust mission, indicating that amino acids such as glycine formed long before stars or planets.

Until recently, however, glycine formation was thought to require energy, creating obvious barriers to the environment in which it could form.

In a new study, a team of astronomers and astronomers were able to show that glycine icy dust can form on the surface of grains, using ‘dark chemistry’ in the absence of energy.

An international team of scientists led by experts from Queen Mary University of London has mimicked the findings of dark interstellar dust clouds.

“The seeds of life formed before the stars and planets were born. The process we have learned is universal, which means that the universe must be filled with molecules, which we, as we know, think of as the building blocks of life.”

‘Now we need to go and find them,’ Iopolo said in an interview with MailOnline.

These findings contradict previous studies, which indicated that ultraviolet radiation was needed to produce this molecule.

The team, which includes researchers from around the world, was mostly in the Laboratory for Astrophysics at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.

Dr. of Queen Mary University, London. That being said, dark chemistry is the chemistry without the need for dark radiant radiation, shapes in dark clouds away from stars.

“In the laboratory we were able to simulate conditions in dark interstellar clouds, where the cold dust is covered with thin layers,” he said.

They are then ‘processed under the influence of atoms, which decompose the pre-existing organisms and reassemble the reactive intermediates.’

Scientists first showed that methylamine, a precursor of glycine found in the comet of 67P comets, could be formed.

Subsequently, glycine could be formed using a unique ultra-high vacuum setup consisting of atomic beam lines and precise diagnostic equipment, and they were able to confirm the presence of water ice in the process.

Further research using astronomical texts confirmed the results and allowed researchers to extropolate data from one day’s laboratory time into interstellar conditions, which lasted for millions of years.

The discovery of glycine in comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko (pictured) and samples returned to Earth from the Stardust mission indicates that amino acids such as glycine formed long before stars or planets.

“From this we learn that glycine can be formed in small but substantial amounts of space over time,” said Herma Kappen, a professor at Radboud University in Nizhny Novgorod.

Harold Linarts of the Leiden Observatory said, “Molecules that are considered to be the building blocks of life are already forming at some point.

The early formation of glycine in the evolution of stellar regions suggests that this amino acid may be more ubiquitous in space and stored in bulk ice before being incorporated into comets and planetesimals. Made. ‘

Glycine and other amino acids can form in dense interstellar clouds before being transformed into new stars and planets. They can be carried to planets or asteroids like a young Earth

“Once formed, glycine can become a precursor to other complex biological molecules,” said Drs.

Following the same mechanism, in principle, other functional groups can be added to the glycine spine, resulting in the formation of other amino acids such as alanine and serine in the dark clouds of space.

‘Eventually, this rich biological molecular inventory was incorporated into the celestial bodies like comets and passed on to the young planets, as has happened to our planet and many other planets.’