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The beginnings of the beginnings of life, the fundamental building blocks of DNA and RNA, have been detected in cosmic clouds near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, student researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) announced Thursday.
Using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to look closely at the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud, students detected the radio signals generated by rotational transitions of two prebiotic molecules, cyanomethanimine and ethanamine, key to the formation of DNA and the amino acid alanine.
To identify cyanomethanimine and ethanamine, the team used new technology to study both molecules’ radio signals in the laboratory, then matched the data pattern to observations from signals in Sagittarius B2.
The discoveries were made possible by new technology that speeds the process of identifying the "fingerprints" of cosmic chemicals. Each molecule has a specific set of rotational states that it can assume. When it changes from one state to another, a specific amount of energy is either emitted or absorbed, often as radio waves at specific frequencies that can be observed with the GBT.
Methods: Experimental spectra of 2-aminopropionitrile have been recorded in the microwave and submm energy range (8-80 GHz, 150-660 GHz). Ab initio calculations facilitated the assignment of the ground state of the most stable conformer and its five lowest excited vibrational states. An unbiased spectral survey of the 80-116 GHz atmospheric window performed with the IRAM 30 m telescope was used to search for this molecule in the hot core Sgr B2(N). This survey was analyzed in the local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) approximation. The emission of 2-aminopropionitrile was modeled simultaneously with the emission of all molecules known in Sgr B2(N), which allowed us to properly take into account line blending and avoid misassignments.
Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by DaTroof
Ok.
The discoveries were made possible by new technology that speeds the process of identifying the "fingerprints" of cosmic chemicals. Each molecule has a specific set of rotational states that it can assume. When it changes from one state to another, a specific amount of energy is either emitted or absorbed, often as radio waves at specific frequencies that can be observed with the GBT.
www.nrao.edu...
They weren't the only ones looking for such signatures.
Methods: Experimental spectra of 2-aminopropionitrile have been recorded in the microwave and submm energy range (8-80 GHz, 150-660 GHz). Ab initio calculations facilitated the assignment of the ground state of the most stable conformer and its five lowest excited vibrational states. An unbiased spectral survey of the 80-116 GHz atmospheric window performed with the IRAM 30 m telescope was used to search for this molecule in the hot core Sgr B2(N). This survey was analyzed in the local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) approximation. The emission of 2-aminopropionitrile was modeled simultaneously with the emission of all molecules known in Sgr B2(N), which allowed us to properly take into account line blending and avoid misassignments.
adsabs.harvard.edu...
The NRAO team has been searching for molecules in space for years, discovering radio signals from over 700 different molecules which have yet to be identified. One of them, researchers announced in 2001, is alcohol. Researchers have also detected sugar in Sagittarius B2.
Originally posted by slugger9787
find proof of evolution on earth
before you start seeing it in space.
none of the students or professors can even
count the hairs on their own head, much less
find or see DNA in space with a telescope.
When was the last time the telescope was calibrated?
And will the students submit bodily fluids for a urine drug screen?
I will pay for it.
edit on 1-3-2013 by slugger9787 because: (no reason given)edit on 1-3-2013 by slugger9787 because: added last two sentences