Scientists have proven that amino acids can form on asteroids in space under the influence of gamma rays. This has been reported by the American Chemical Society.
Amino acids are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. They are part of proteins, and without them earthly life would be impossible. In this context, biologists are trying to understand how exactly these substances arose on Earth and are involved in abiogenesis. According to one hypothesis, amino acids were carried by meteorites, but exactly how they formed in space remains unclear.
Yoko Kebukawa and her colleagues conducted an experiment and found out how this could happen. To do this, they dissolved formaldehyde and ammonia in water, sealed the solution in glass tubes, and irradiated the tubes with the high-energy gamma radiation obtained when cobalt-60 decays. They found that the synthesis of α-amino acids such as alanine, glycine, α-aminobutyric acid and glutamic acid and β-amino acids such as β-alanine and β-aminoisobutyric acid increased in irradiated solutions as the dose increased. The source of radiation in asteroids is the decay of the aluminum-26 isotope.
As a result, researchers estimated that it would take 1,000 to 100,000 years for radioactive aluminum decay to form the amount of alanine and β-alanine found in the Murchison meteorite that crashed in Australia in 1969. This work proves that reactions catalyzed by gamma rays can produce amino acids that likely contributed to the origin of life on Earth.
Source: Port Altele
