A group of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) have detected for the first time, a molecule very similar to "amino acid in space.
According to the report in a research journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the molecule amino acetonitrile, was discovered in a giant cloud of gas called "Large Molecule Heimat" is near the center of the galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius . L-amino acetonitrile has been effectively identified thanks to "help a 30-meter radio telescope in southern Spain. The discovery was later confirmed in France and in Australia by two arrays of radio telescopes with a spatial resolution ten times higher than that of the telescope originario.Quando have made this discovery, astronomers involved in the research project were studying the spectral lines emitted from molecules to complex "internal" Large Molecule Heimat. "Atoms and molecules emit light at very specific frequencies, which appear as characteristic lines in the electromagnetic spectrum. By analyzing these spectral lines, astronomers can determine the chemical composition of clouds cosmiche.Comunque, the more complex the molecule, the more become intricate its radiation, from which the "large number of spectral lines emitted by these molecules. At the same time, these lines are very weak and difficult to identify in the" skein "of spectral lines." Nevertheless, we are finally able to assign 51 very weak lines to the molecule amino acetonitrile "says Arnaud Belloc, scientist and lead author of the MPIfR monografia.Sebbene since 1965, astronomers were able to identify regions in the interstellar more than 140 types of molecules, particularly of organic or carbon for a long time are dedicated to the vain search for glycine, the simplest form of an amino acid. The researchers believe, however, that the "amino acetonitrile is most likely a direct precursor of glycine. "L" identification of the amino acetonitrile has further illuminated our understanding of the chemistry of the hot and dense regions where stars form. I am sure that in future we will be able to identify many other organic molecules, more complex in the interstellar gas. There are already several candidates, "says Karl Menten, director of the MPIfR and head of research group" Millimetre and submillimetre. "The search for interstellar amino acids is crucial to understanding the origins of life on earth, as amino acids are the basic building blocks of proteins, without which there would have been possible the "evolution of life. so far had been identified in amino acids meteorites fallen on Earth, but never in interstellar space.