Regiomontanus
Ματαιοδοξία ματαιοδοξιών! Όλα είναι ματαιοδοξία.
Meteorites, fragments of asteroids, are thought to have been important in the emergence of life here since they contain amino acids [1] and other important organic compounds. So it has been thought that Earth was seeded for life by this debris (including comets and dust - many tons of dust still rain down on earth daily [2]). All life here uses the same 20 amino acids by the way.
We know that formaldehyde and ammonia are essential components of amino acids and sugars (we recently detected the important-for-life sugar ribose in space). And they have been detected on meteorites before. So we have already found in space the ingredients that go into amino acids (and detected amino acids themselves).
But formaldehyde and ammonia vaporize easily in space so it was thought that HMT, hexamethylenetetramine, might be involved because heated in the presence of water it leads to the formation of those molecules.
Well, finally, trace amounts of HMT have been found in meteorites.
Extraterrestrial hexamethylenetetramine in meteorites—a precursor of prebiotic chemistry in the inner solar system | Nature Communications
The conventional method for extracting organic compounds from the rocks, it turns out, was degrading the HMT so that it was not detectable.
So this result, if it holds up, helps fill in another link in the chemical chain leading to life, ultimately going through stars and back to the Creation of our universe and the only baryonic matter that existed then (well, after things cooled down a bit!), hydrogen, helium, and a tiny bit of lithium.
Glory to God
[1] Mapping Amino Acids to Understand Life's Origins - Astrobiology Magazine
[2] 60 Tons Of Cosmic Dust Fall To Earth Every Day
We know that formaldehyde and ammonia are essential components of amino acids and sugars (we recently detected the important-for-life sugar ribose in space). And they have been detected on meteorites before. So we have already found in space the ingredients that go into amino acids (and detected amino acids themselves).
But formaldehyde and ammonia vaporize easily in space so it was thought that HMT, hexamethylenetetramine, might be involved because heated in the presence of water it leads to the formation of those molecules.
Well, finally, trace amounts of HMT have been found in meteorites.
Extraterrestrial hexamethylenetetramine in meteorites—a precursor of prebiotic chemistry in the inner solar system | Nature Communications
The conventional method for extracting organic compounds from the rocks, it turns out, was degrading the HMT so that it was not detectable.
So this result, if it holds up, helps fill in another link in the chemical chain leading to life, ultimately going through stars and back to the Creation of our universe and the only baryonic matter that existed then (well, after things cooled down a bit!), hydrogen, helium, and a tiny bit of lithium.
Glory to God
[1] Mapping Amino Acids to Understand Life's Origins - Astrobiology Magazine
[2] 60 Tons Of Cosmic Dust Fall To Earth Every Day
