NASA experiment shows DNA sugars could be floating around in space

SPACE
Michael Irving
December 18th, 2018

So far, Earth is the only place in the universe that we know for sure is home to life, but there's evidence that its chemical building blocks may start stacking up in space. Now, NASA astrophysicists have managed to create DNA sugars in a vacuum chamber that simulates interstellar space, and in follow-up studies found other sugar derivatives in meteorite samples.

Exactly how life got started on Earth remains a mystery, particularly the leap from non-living matter to living cells. The current leading theory is that surface hot springs or deep-sea hydrothermal vents provided the right conditions and ingredients to give birth to simple life, but there are still some plot holes to be patched up.

An emerging alternative is that Earth was merely the "oven" for the cake of life – the batter may have been mixed in space. It may sound far-fetched, but the evidence for this is growing. Light signatures of sugars and molecules with the right structure and geometry for life have been detected out in space, while water and compounds essential for life have been found in meteorites.

The new study adds to that evidence. Scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center set out to see whether DNA sugars could be created in interstellar space. To do so, they cooled an aluminum substance almost to absolute zero, and placed it in a vacuum chamber that recreated the conditions of deep space. Then, the team added a gas mixture of water vapor and methanol – components of the interstellar medium – and finally they beamed UV light into the chamber to mimic radiation from stars.

More:
https://newatlas.com/dna-sugars-space/57729/