Researchers find RNA molecules in the Milky Way

Researchers have discovered the building blocks of life in a cloud near the center of our galaxy.

toxic nitrileAre a class of organic molecules, an important precursor to the molecules necessary for life on Earth: ribonucleotides consist of nucleobases bound together with the ribose and phosphate group RNA appearance. Researchers from Spain, Japan, Chile, Italy and the United States have now found these toxic nitriles in molecular clouds in interstellar space, near the center of the Milky Way. So nitriles are the basic building blocks of life.

“The chemistry that occurs in the interstellar medium is able to efficiently form multiple nitriles, which are important molecular precursors for the ‘RNA world’ scenario,” he explains. Victor Mresearcher in The Astrobiology Center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the National Institute of Space Technology (INTA). The researchers also have their findings on file The study was publishedAnd the As reported by SciTechDaily.

Life on Earth was originally only through this world of RNA It is possible that DNA and protein enzymes formed only later, according to the researchers’ theory. According to their RNA World theory, nitriles and the building blocks of other life did not all necessarily originate on the same Earth: they could alsoCreated in the same space And moves to the young Earth in comets and meteorites. This could have happened between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago.

“Thanks to our observations over the past few years, including current results, we now know that nitriles are among the most abundant chemical families in the universe. We have them in molecular clouds In the center of our galaxy are protostars of different masses, meteors, comets, and also in the atmosphere of Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons. “