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A team of researchers say they have found some of the building blocks of RNA in a molecular cloud close to the center of the Milky Way. The discovery has implications for theories about how life began on Earth – and perhaps elsewhere. The molecular cloud is named G+0.693-0.027. A team of astrophysicists, astrobiologists and chemists conducted a cloud survey using two telescopes in Spain to uncover chemical details. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a molecule present in all living cells that behaves similarly to DNA, although it is single-stranded. There is evidence that RNA could precede DNA, based on laboratory observations of ribosomes, which are composed of RNA. However, whether ancient RNA could start life or not, is another matter. The team recently discovered several organic molecules in the cloud that are part of a group called nitriles, which may have been important in producing RNA in the early universe; The team’s results were published today in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space

A team of researchers say they have found some of the building blocks of RNA in a molecular cloud close to the center of the Milky Way. The discovery has implications for theories about how life began on Earth – and perhaps elsewhere. The molecular cloud is named G+0.693-0.027. A team of astrophysicists, astrobiologists and chemists conducted a cloud survey using two telescopes in Spain to uncover chemical details. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a molecule present in all living cells that behaves similarly to DNA, although it is single-stranded. There is evidence that RNA could precede DNA, based on laboratory observations of ribosomes, which are composed of RNA. However, whether ancient RNA could start life or not, is another matter. The team recently discovered several organic molecules in the cloud that are part of a group called nitriles, which may have been important in producing RNA in the early universe; The team’s results were published today in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space

The heart of the Milky Way appears to be a hotspot for molecules that combine to form RNA. A new survey of the thick molecular cloud that shrouds the galactic center has revealed the presence of various nitriles – organic molecules that are often toxic in isolation, but are also molecular building blocks essential for life. The increase in prebiotic molecules (molecules involved in the emergence of life) identified at the center of galaxies, particularly those associated with RNA, has implications for our understanding of how life emerged in the Universe – and how it happened on Earth. “Here we show that the chemistry occurring in the interstellar medium is able to efficiently form some of the nitriles, which are key molecular precursors of the ‘RNA World’ scenario,” explains astrobiologist Víctor Rivilla of the Spanish National Research Council and National Institutes. Aerospace Technology in Spain. Exactly how life arose on Earth is a mystery that basic scientists are eager to achie