For the first time, scientists insulated a compound that could open a new door in understanding chemistry that promotes life in space.
Ryan Fortenberry, Astrochemical at the University of Mississippi, Ralf Kaiser, Professor of Chemistry at the Hawaiian University of Māno, and Alexander M. Mebel, a calculation chemist at Florida International University, is part of the international team for the first time. Have published their research on an elusive compound in the magazine Natural communicationwith.
“It is basically a prebiotic concentrate – a seed of life molecules,” Fortenberry said. “It’s something that can lead to more complicated chemistry if he has the opportunity. Think of it like a acorn that grows into a tree in the grove.
“The acorn itself cannot create a tree; it requires sunlight and water and a lot of other things. But it can be what this process begins.”
Methanetrol is an ortho acid – an elusive class of compounds that are particularly difficult to insulate and study, but are expected to play a key role in chemistry of early life.
To imitate how methanetrol could form in space, scientists have stiffened water and carbon dioxide to almost absolute zero and exposed them to space radiation similar to beam. This process allowed them to release the molecule into the form of gas and identify it using strong ultraviolet light.
“The detection of a single alcohol with four hydroxyl groups on the same carbon atom is pushing experimental and detection capabilities to the” final limit “, another level beyond what could be achieved earlier due to lack of experimental and computational approaches,” said Kaiser, whose laboratory is trying to insulate metanetrol for more than five years.
Since methanetrol has so many oxygen bonds – and because oxygen does not like other oxygens – the compound is very unstable, which means that it is likely to disintegrate if it is not maintained in the correct conditions.
“You have this compact carbon and oxygen molecule that just wants to go” boom “,” Fortenberry said. “And if you give it any energy, you will have water, hydrogen peroxide and many other potential compounds that are important for life.
“It’s like a prebiotic bomb.”
If the molecule can form in the laboratory, it can also form in space, the authors said. As a result, the compound is particularly interesting for astrochemists looking for potential areas supported by life.
“While carbon is a building block of life, oxygen is what makes almost everything else,” Fortenberry said. “Oxygen is everywhere and is essential for life as we know it.
“So if we find places where Metanetrol is naturally formed, we know that it is a place that has potential building blocks to support life.”
This material is based on the work supported by the National Science Foundation Grants Ast-2403867.
