Origins from space (Earth, Abiogenesis, creation, hell, genesis)

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

ASTRONOMY From Science News, October 9, 2004 page 237 Volume 166, No. 15

More space sugar
How sweet it is! Four years ago, astronomers reported that they had for the first time detected sugar in space (SN: 6/24/00, p. 405). The same team has now found a second source of the simple sugar glycoaldehyde, in a dust-and-gas cloud 26,000 light-years from Earth. Glycoaldehyde can combine with other sugars to form ribose, the backbone of DNA and RNA.

In 2000, the researchers detected the molecule in a region of the starforming cloud Sagittarius B2 that has a temperature of about 50 kelvins. In the Sept. 20 Astrophysical Journal Letters, the astronomers report finding glycoaldehyde in a region of the cloud with a temperature of just 8 kelvins.

Glycoaldehyde couldn't have sugar glycoald formed at this low temperature, says study coauthor Philip Jewell of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank, W. Va. It must have gotten its start within dust grains in warmer regions of the cloud and then migrated to cooler regions, he notes.
Jewell's team suggests that shock waves in the cloud shattered the dust grains. The shock waves may have been generated by bubbles of gas driven from the star-forming parts of the cloud or by the infall of material into those star-forming sites, he adds.

Other star-forming clouds might also contain glycoaldehyde in chilly regions, says Jewell. These include the outer reaches of planet-spawning disks that swaddle young stars. The compound and others like it could be deposited on young planets, "possibly providing the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life;' he notes. -R.C.

When someone says (even erronously) that Intelligent Design is the only alternative because of thus and so, there is a failure to think that all of the resources for abiogenesis is of natural earthly origin. Intelligent Design just took a seat further back in the auditorium. I think it''s time Intelligent Design left the room entirely. It has nothing to contribute and science seems to be getting close to its death toll anyway

-pah-

[meogi]

Awesome. Mmm, space sugar.

[Michelle]

Physics is not my strong suit so I want some clarification here please. But if we have spotted sugar 26,000 light years away doesn't that suggest there could be advanced life there. As I unsterstand physics it takes millions of years for light to travel that far, so there could be advanced life there now..

[meogi]

Originally Posted by Michelle

Physics is not my strong suit so I want some clarification here please. But if we have spotted sugar 26,000 light years away doesn't that suggest there could be advanced life there. As I unsterstand physics it takes millions of years for light to travel that far, so there could be advanced life there now..

If it takes 26,000 light years for us to see it, it took 26,000 years. The distance, is huge though. Light travels at 3x10^8 meters per second. That's about 5.9x10^12 miles in one year. So about 1.5x10^17 miles away. Huge.

It does not suggest that there is advanced life there, but that there is the possibility for life.

[Michelle]

thanks Meogi, it appears we should be "Learning to fly"