Major ingredient for life on Earth formed in deep space, claims new study
Researchers discover extraterrestrial origins of a chemical essential for human DNA and other cell processes.
30 September, 2018
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM
- Scientists create interstellar icy grains in a super-cold experiment.
- They show that phosphates forms under these conditions.
- Phosphates are crucial building blocks in molecular biology.
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Life on Earth would not be possible without a key ingredient that came from an extraterrestrial source, claims new research. Scientists identified that
<strong>phosphorus</strong>, an important component for life, was created in outer space and delivered to Earth by comets or meteorites in the first billion years of the planet's existence. Once here, phosphorus compounds got incorporated in biomolecules which can be found in the cells of all living creatures on Earth.
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Phosphorus, specifically as the derivative
<em><strong>phosphates</strong></em>, is essential in the creation of DNA and cell membranes as well as the functioning of other major cellular processes. It's also necessary for the creation of bone and teeth. Needless to say, it's a big deal for us, humans. Yet, relative to its importance in biology, it is the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/22641-cosmic-phosphorus-first-life-astrobiology.html" target="_blank">least abundant</a> element cosmically.
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<a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/key-molecular-building-blocks-may-have-come-from-space" target="_blank">According to Cosmos Magazine,</a> phosphorus is believed to have formed in supernovas, amid exploding stars. It spread to gas and dust from which new stars and solar systems were condensed. But to become a phosphate, the element had to go through a transformation, which the researchers say likely happened in interstellar dust clouds, courtesy of the chemical <em>phosphine</em>, derived from phosphorus. Tantalizingly, this chemical can also be found in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, and also in the gas jets from the comet <strong>67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko</strong> - explored in 2014 and 2016 by the <a href="http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/" target="_blank">Rosetta probe.</a>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY3NDQ3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjMwNDMwNH0.9A-hwi3HH_UFcd2hjHnifnOLrVrvF23ptSRUI2Als5Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="9e7ad" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1625fa6b4003f7a9e37e3073ec56c2f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" data-gramm="true" data-gramm_editor="true" data-gramm_id="559780f6-77c6-baa0-50ff-a41ff660f8fc" placeholder="add caption..." spellcheck="false">Surface science setup in the University of Hawaii's Manoa's W.M. Keck Research Laboratory in Astrochemistry that carried out the experiment.</small>
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa.</small>
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To probe the mystery, the researchers could not work with phosphine directly as it's highly toxic. So they used an ultra-high vacuum chamber that was cooled to 5K (-450°F) and recreated
<strong>interstellar icy grains.</strong> After coating the grains with carbon dioxide, water, and phosphine, and exposing them to ionizing radiation that simulated cosmic rays you'd find in space, the scientists found that various phosphate-like chemicals like <strong>phosphoric acid and diphosphoric acid</strong> were formed. These chemicals are crucial building blocks in molecular biology.
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Thus created in deep space, nanoparticles likely became parts of larger objects – comets or asteroids – which eventually found their way to Earth. Here the phosphates added key ingredients to the primordial cocktail that eventually produced life.
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The international research team included the lead author
<strong>Andrew Turner </strong>(graduate student at the time, now assistant professor at the University of Pikeville) and chemistry Professor <a href="http://manoa.hawaii.edu/chem/groups/kaiser/" target="_blank"><strong>Ralf Kaiser</strong></a> from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, <strong><a href="http://www.unice.fr/meierhenrich/meinert.html" target="_blank">Cornelia Meinert</a> </strong>from the University of Nice in France, as well as <a href="https://chem.ndhu.edu.tw/en/en-home" target="_blank"><strong>Agnes Chang</strong></a> of National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan.
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"On Earth, phosphine is lethal to living beings," said Turner. "But in the interstellar medium, an exotic phosphine chemistry can promote rare chemical reaction pathways to initiate the formation of biorelevant molecules such as oxoacids of phosphorus, which eventually might spark the molecular evolution of
<strong>life as we know it."</strong>
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Check out the new study
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06415-7" target="_blank">"An Interstellar Synthesis of Phosphorus Oxoacids"</a>, published in the <em>Nature Communications</em> magazine.
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Want to see what it's like to live on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko? Watch this video from the Rosetta probe:
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What a Purple Column of Light Named “Steve” Teaches Us About Our Potential
Here’s how a discovery by a plucky band of sky-watchers changed science.
28 April, 2017
Aurora borealis or the northern lights. Getty Images.
What would you think if you were looking into the night sky and saw a purple column of light streak vertically in front of you? At first glance, it appears to be a phenomenon much like the Aurora Borealis or “Northern Lights,” according to Eric Donovan. He’s an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary. Prof. Donovan says it has the same arc shape as an aurora but the color is different. Auroras also usually go horizontally, while “Steve” as it’s been named, is vertical.
<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/04/26/strange-sky-spectacle-aurora-named-steve/100930960/" target="_blank" title="USA Today">Canadians citizens discovered the phenomenon</a>, which was recently verified by the European Space Agency (ESA). Prof. Donovan first came across it while viewing pictures on the Alberta Aurora Chasers’ Facebook page. "We have seen it from Hudson Bay all the way over to Alaska in our data, and so it's like someone reached in from space and drew a line with a purple magic marker across the Earth," Donovan said.</p> <p>He and the ESA took the photos and information from the group’s page and cross-referenced it with data from<a href="http://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/nature-travel/steve-new-aurora-northern-lights-canada" target="_blank" title="Travel and Leisure "> ESA Swarm satellites</a>. These monitor Earth’s magnetic field. Data from special cameras which watch the night sky was also used. Donovan and colleagues discovered that the phenomenon is 18 miles (25 km) wide, can last up to an hour, runs East to West, and isn’t often visible October to February.</p> <p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMzOTMwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMTU2NzcxMX0.6Vk2HdeZtK2UeFsqF_744CpldaXiJ4-Ba9j0aUrTxds/img.jpg?width=980" id="d5ab8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ebc5b45d9ee1ab653cd825c6a0997ae9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p><em>The aurora borealis. Getty Images</em>.</p> <p>Originally it was thought to be a "proton arc." These are the purple streaks that sometimes pop up alongside auroras. Scientists studying them say they have nothing to do with protons at all. Protons themselves do make auroras when they encounter the atmosphere. But they aren’t on a spectrum visible to the naked eye.</p> <p>An actual aurora works like this: particles from the sun hit Earth’s upper atmosphere, the magnetic field pushes them either into the northern or southern regions. Here, they smash into oxygen or nitrogen atoms, releasing energy in brilliant streaks of light.</p> <p>Steve isn’t a proton arc at all but a gas ribbon burning at 5,400 Fº (3,000 Cº) 186 miles (300 km) above the Earth. These gases just happen to burn hotter than those surrounding it. Because it’s a gas and not particles in the ionosphere, Steve isn’t technically an aurora.</p> <p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODMzOTMwMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODgyODU5Mn0.yRgR5v2riXMWXJ12-Sp1ssFMP8Nog69ZFclZqlTCvPI/img.jpg?width=980" id="a84ae" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f0cbb0566c614e377f1c643555cec103" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p><em>Citizen scientists were the first to discover “Steve.” Getty Images. </em></p> <p>In a letter to the ESA, Donovan wrote, “It turns out (an aurora like) Steve is actually remarkably common, but we hadn’t noticed it before." He added, "It’s thanks to ground-based observations, satellites, today’s explosion of access to data and an army of citizen scientists joining forces to document it." The Alberta Aurora Chasers named it Steve, after the kid’s move <em>Over the Hedge, </em>where characters who are afraid of something call it Steve to remove its unfamiliarity and so, not be afraid anymore.</p> <p>Though it hasn’t been officially named, some scientists are pushing for the acronym STEVE standing for: “Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.” This is to honor the citizens who through their interest and social media interactions led to its discovery. Donovan said the phenomenon wouldn’t have been discovered if it weren’t for the Facebook page. "We really are in a truly new era," he said. That’s an era where anyone who has an interest and put in the time to share their findings on social media, can help bring a strange phenomenon of nature to light, and maybe even name it.</p> <p>To learn more about “Steve,” click here: </p> <p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166121341" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4016501d3060223ba698901a1272b832"></iframe></p>
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