An international group of scientists has found that glycine, an important amino acid for the existence of living organisms, which serves as a source of other organic molecules, can be synthesized in space. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Researchers have shown that glycine forms on the surface of ice particles in the absence of solar radiation. Previously it was assumed that this process requires ultraviolet light. Chemists have modeled conditions in dark interstellar nebulae where dust is covered in a thin layer of frozen water. Particles are bombarded with atoms, resulting in fragments of precursor molecules, which then begin to enter into chemical reactions.
Earlier, astronomers found molecules of methylamine on comets, which is a precursor of glycine. Glycine itself, as scientists have confirmed through experiments, is formed only in the presence of water.
Chemists extrapolated the results of laboratory studies to the interstellar medium and millions of years of chemical evolution in space and found that a significant amount of glycine must be formed. Thus, the amino acid is contained in ice bodies, from which planetesimals, the “embryos” of planets, can then arise. Glycine itself, in turn, can play the role of a precursor of other organic molecules necessary for the appearance of living organisms on Earth.