On paper, chemistry looks like little Cs, Hs, and Os,... flat… simple… but just
like a map versus a globe, that's just a representation: not only are molecules three-dimensional,
they're "handed"
Hey handymen and handywomen, Trace here on DNews today.
Scientists find incredible things in space all the time.
It's space, it's fantastic, but this find is a doozy.
Using sensitive radio telescopes, astronomers found a complex organic molecule in interstellar
space.
The molecule is propylene oxide and it was found in a star-forming region near the centre
of our Milky Way galaxy.
But it gets better, this discovery might show that life on Earth is not as unique as we
may have thought.
Propylene oxide is what’s known as a handed molecule.
Handed, in this case, doesn’t mean being right or left handed like we’re used to
it meaning, but hands are a good way to illustrate what it does mean.
Handed in this case means two molecules are mirror images, they're similar, but flipped,
they're asymmetrical!
If you put your hands side by side, they mirror each other, but put one on top of the other
and you’ll find they aren’t superimposable.
And this is a super exciting find for scientists because molecules on Earth are just like this
too!
Lemme explain.
Handedness is a chemical property called chirality.
And chirality matters because the building blocks of life are chiral.
For example: DNA only twists in a right-handed screw… and only uses right-handed molecules
of the sugar ribose, but it also uses only left-handed amino acids.
Basically, different parts life evolved to favour one “hand” over another, and scientists
have no idea why.
Every living thing has somehow determined it will use one, and only one of the chiral
molecules available in nature.
And even though they exist, they're super curious, because chiral molecules "have the
same melting, boiling, and freezing points," and even produce the same spectra when they
emit light.
But, even though they behave the same way, they're not the same.
Like a glove only fits on one hand, molecules have to fit together in a very specific way,
and, for some reason, life evolved so only certain hands fit with each other.
It's confusing, and crazy, but that's how nature works!
Why?
We don't know!
A paper in Nature, posits asymmetrical molecules may have evolved, because radioactive decay
destroys left-handed molecules more quickly, leaving only right-handed ones.
If this was also the case early in life's evolution, it could explain why DNA is mostly
right-handed.
Scientists also know that molecules large enough with an electrical charge will find
their like type to bind with, meaning this is among their chemical properties.
But still, the scientists admit that "we may never know" exactly why this happens.
What we do know is this chirality is present on Earth, and has been found in our solar
system as well, on both meteorites and in comets.
Of course, since we know life exists here… we live here… it makes sense that we'd find
chiral molecules.
Finding a chiral molecule in interstellar space on the other hand (pun intended), means
chirality didn’t spring up on Earth.
It makes it even more awesome.
And that's exactly what the scientists found.
So, if these chiral molecules existed in the cloud of gas and dust that became our solar
system, they could have reached Earth via a meteorite or comet.
Which could help explain how life first formed on Earth.
And finding chiral molecules in interstellar space has a similar implication: because these
molecules exist here, and now we know they exist out there, that could mean, that organic
molecules as we know them could come together on ANOTHER PLANET, or perhaps they already
have…
And as you might imagine: more research is needed.
Because they can't tell handedness from this far away, scientists can’t tell yet which
handed version of propylene oxide they’ve found…
Follow-up observations will use polarized light to see if one version of the molecule
dominates space.
Let's give them a hand, eh?
This isn't the only crazy thing found in space lately, Atomic Oxygen was found on Mars!
And it sounds like some kind of Simpsonian superhero, but it's not.
Watch this video to find out what it is!
Up and At Dem!
Does stuff like this blow your mind?!
It totally blew mine.
If you have any other crazy science you want to know more about…