Artificial comet ice was created by a team of scientists that contains ribose and other sugars which became the basis of a new study that suggests that this ribose in RNA and DNA molecules that are integral in every known life form, originally hail from deep space.
This laboratory experiment suggests the possibility that similarly structured sugars are first created under cosmic ice conditions during a time when the solar system is at its early stages of development. Scientists from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France also say that this substance has not been detected in any cometary ice or meteorites.
According to author of the study and astrochemist Cornelia Meinert, the presence of ribose and sugar molecules from an artificial comet was a significant new discovery which is entirely unexpected. This can also link to the many theories about the origins of life, she adds.
All living creatures on Earth possess DNA and RNA where scientists have been in the quest to discover their origins. Some believe that they were first created in another alien world or when comets and asteroids visited our solar system carrying these substances that are the basic building blocks of life that are required to form molecules.
Apparently, many amino acids and nucleic acid components were already detected from meteorites and lab manufactured comets. Recently, French scientists created ribose which is one of the main components of RNA, from simulated comet ice in artificial astrophysical settings.
During these experiments, the team mixed water, methanol and ammonia within low temperatures and pressures that simulate how a comet creates raw material such as dust and ice cover. This mixture was then exposed to ultraviolet light, and after intensive analysis, results revealed sugars and ribose that can link to the formation of formaldehyde.
This new study is also based on the prior research by the organics detector on the Philae lander, which is the first lander to touchdown on a comet. In 2014, European Space Agency's Rosetta probe deployed the lander on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA mission scientists did not discover any traces of ribose on the comet but there were three organic materials on the dusty, ice comet.
The team's next step in their research is to identify the exact mechanism how sugar molecules form in artificial ice and to investigate the nature and structure of these to reveal more information about DNA evolution.
This new study is published in the journal Science.