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News & Blogs Massive discovery for life in the universe

CelticWanderer

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I feel like this is huge. One step closer to figuring out how life propagates itself through out the universe. Just, really fucking amazing.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-ames-reproduces-the-building-blocks-of-life-in-laboratory/


NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, cytosine, and thymine, three key components of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces these essential ingredients of life.

Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the central structure for uracil, cytosine, and thymine, which are all three part of a genetic code found in ribonucleic (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA). RNA and DNA are central to protein synthesis, but also have many other roles.

acd15-0032-002_2.jpg
An ice sample is held at approximately -440 degrees Fahrenheit in a vacuum chamber, where it is irradiated with high energy UV photons from a hydrogen lamp. The bombarding photons break chemical bonds in the ice samples and result in the formation of new compounds, such as uracil.
Image Credit:
NASA/Dominic Hart
"We have demonstrated for the first time that we can make uracil, cytosine, and thymine, all three components of RNA and DNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space," said Michel Nuevo, research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. "We are showing that these laboratory processes, which simulate conditions in outer space, can make several fundamental building blocks used by living organisms on Earth."

An ice sample is deposited on a cold (approximately –440 degrees Fahrenheit) substrate in a chamber, where it is irradiated with high-energy ultraviolet (UV) photons from a hydrogen lamp. The bombarding photons break chemical bonds in the ices and break down the ice's molecules into fragments that then recombine to form new compounds, such as uracil, cytosine, and thymine.

NASA Ames scientists have been simulating the environments found in interstellar space and the outer Solar System for years. During this time, they have studied a class of carbon-rich compounds, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), that have been identified in meteorites, and which are the most common carbon-rich compound observed in the universe. PAHs typically are structures based on several six-carbon rings that resemble fused hexagons, or a piece of chicken wire.

The molecule pyrimidine is found in meteorites, although scientists still do not know its origin. It may be similar to the carbon-rich PAHs, in that it may be produced in the final outbursts of dying, giant red stars, or formed in dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust.

"Molecules like pyrimidine have nitrogen atoms in their ring structures, which makes them somewhat wimpy. As a less stable molecule, it is more susceptible to destruction by radiation, compared to its counterparts that don't have nitrogen," said Scott Sandford, a space science researcher at Ames. "We wanted to test whether pyrimidine can survive in space, and whether it can undergo reactions that turn it into more complicated organic species, such as the nucleobases uracil, cytosine, and thymine."

nucleobases_pyrimidine_uracil_image.jpg
Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the central structure for uracil, cytosine, and thymine, which are found in RNA and DNA.
Image Credit:
NASA

nucleobases_cytosine_thymine_image.jpg
The ring-shaped molecule pyrimidine is found in cytosine and thymine.
Image Credit:
NASA
In theory, the researchers thought that if molecules of pyrimidine could survive long enough to migrate into interstellar dust clouds, they might be able to shield themselves from destructive radiation. Once in the clouds, most molecules freeze onto dust grains (much like moisture in your breath condenses on a cold window during winter).

These clouds are dense enough to screen out much of the surrounding outside radiation of space, thereby providing some protection to the molecules inside the clouds.

Scientists tested their hypotheses in the Ames Astrochemistry Laboratory. During their experiment, they exposed the ice sample containing pyrimidine to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions, including a very high vacuum, extremely low temperatures (approximately –440 degrees Fahrenheit), and harsh radiation.

They found that when pyrimidine is frozen in ice mostly consisting of water, but also ammonia, methanol, or methane, it is much less vulnerable to destruction by radiation than it would be if it were in the gas phase in open space. Instead of being destroyed, many of the molecules took on new forms, such as the RNA/DNA components uracil, cytosine, and thymine, which are found in the genetic make-up of all living organisms on Earth.

"We are trying to address the mechanisms in space that are forming these molecules. Considering what we produced in the laboratory, the chemistry of ice exposed to ultraviolet radiation may be an important linking step between what goes on in space and what fell to Earth early in its development," said Christopher Materese, another researcher at NASA Ames who has been working on these experiments.

"Nobody really understands how life got started on Earth. Our experiments suggest that once the Earth formed, many of the building blocks of life were likely present from the beginning. Since we are simulating universal astrophysical conditions, the same is likely wherever planets are formed," says Sandford.

Additional team members who helped perform some of the research are Jason Dworkin, Jamie Elsila, and Stefanie Milam, three NASA scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The research was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program. The NAI is a virtual, distributed organization of competitively-selected teams that integrates and funds astrobiology research and training programs in concert with the national and international science communities.

Ruth Marlaire
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-4789
 

Odin

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Okay I liked wizehops post on animals using mind altering substances. But this I love.
Dude thank you for sharing this. It is really epic and just as crucial as you think.
Exactly the idea of self organization that molecules can produce by piggybacking on other substances and now the involvement of space and UV energy conditions.
Absolutely brilliant.
 

CelticWanderer

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It really gets more hopeful for extraterrestrial life. The way it all works, it seems like it happens all the time, defiantly enough to seed planets in early solar systems.
It's friggin mindblowing.
 
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Tude

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Hello my lovely space wanderers --- I ran across this today @Odin, @CelticWanderer There is a vid too at the link. And i'ts just a mere 500 light years away :)

_________

http://higherperspective.com/2015/02/another-earth.html#Smcu0jT5jLwfpMtj.99

Scientists Have Discovered Another Earth With Probable Life!

image: http://higherperspective.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/new-earthh-1.jpg

new-earthh-1.jpg



NASA has discovered another Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star within the habitable zone using the Kepler Space Telescope. Labeled as Kepler-186f, it is about 500 light-years away from us in the Cygnus constellation.

“The habitable zone” has also been referred to as the goldilocks zone. This zone is the region around a star, within which planets with proper atmospheric pressure are capable of supporting liquid water on their surfaces. It is estimated that there are at least 40 billion Earth-sized planets within the Milky Way, but this planet they’ve just discovered is the first Earth-sized planet to be discovered in the goldilocks zone of another nearby star.


image: http://higherperspective.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/kep.jpg

kep.jpg


Implications?




Besides Kepler-186f, there is also 4 other planets that orbit the same star. This means that if the nearby star is similar to our Sun, the potential for life on Kepler-186f exponentially increases.

“We know of just one planet where life exists – Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth,” said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published in the journal Science. “Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward.”

The nearby star is half the size and mass as our sun and Kepler-186f only receives 1/3 of the energy we get from our sun. Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130 days.


Read more at http://higherperspective.com/2015/02/another-earth.html#zsBVy4bPCOROtYLf.99
 
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CelticWanderer

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Thats really cool. If there is life theres, it's probably single celled organisms, i wouldnt imagine it being more complex than that.
I think looking at earth like planets exclusively really limits our search for life. Theres no telling what other environments other life could thrive in. I feel like the chemicals necessary for life could vary.
I could be horribly wrong though and an earth like environment could really only be the only thing to harbor intelligent, thriving life forms.
 

CelticWanderer

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@wizhop , awesome read right there.
I think that we would be ahead of the great filter. It may have been something like creating fire, having brains large enough to use complex tools and to farm and eventually industrialize. We look at all the other life on the planet and we're the only ones past that primitive age. I imagine something special needs to happen for a species to get where we are. Though we've fucked everything up. Hell maybe we're behind it. Once intelligent enough, do we destroy the planet or prosper with it? (like i know what the hell i'm talkin bout)

I also like the idea of Predator civilizations cause it sounds neat :p even though it would totally suck. We're probably just an incredibly primitive race, out on the fringes of the galaxy deemed too low in resources for colonization and near the center or the the other arms theres bustling space ports. Hell maybe Andromeda is where it's at and the milky way is just a sterile waste land and we just got really lucky. (really unfortunate actually.)


Of course I also like the idea of being a computer simulation because it's fun to play with. I firmly believe the universe runs on mathematics. You start with a seed of 0, plug in your equations for everything the universe does and then start the simulation with an explosion.
The golden ration and fractal geometry both can head towards infinity which is good when you have things on the quantum scale and the massive size of the universe. Just, beautifully simplistic equations and using both you can create anything you see in our universe. Shit, Imma about to make another thread dedicated to those thoughts.

I love talkin bout dis shit.
 

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