RNA Building Blocks Visible at the Center of the Milky Way
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