Astronomers Unveiling Life's Cosmic Origins

[agent46]

The accelerating pace of technological development and frequency of stunning new breakthrough discoveries in many of the sciences these days suggests our civilization may be approaching a radical paradigm shift. I've been a space exploration and astronomy fan since I was a kid and there's no doubt we're in the throws of a true renaissance in space science now. I was telling my wife the other day, I'm beginning to believe we'll have incontrovertible evidence of non-terrestrial life within a short period of time. I'm optimistic in many ways. These are uncertain and dangerous times we live in, but the possibilities of experiencing new wonder have never been so great!

This article is from a science press release site I like to read. Here's a few paragraphs:

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2009)

Processes that laid the foundation for life on Earth -- star and planet formation and the production of complex organic molecules in interstellar space -- are yielding their secrets to astronomers armed with powerful new research tools, and even better tools soon will be available...

Scientists can search the GBT data for specific radio frequencies, called spectral lines -- telltale "fingerprints" -- naturally emitted by molecules in interstellar space. "We've identified more than 720 spectral lines in this collection, and about 240 of those are from unknown molecules," Remijan said. He added, "We're making available to all scientists the best collection of data below 50 GHz ever produced for the study of interstellar chemistry," Remijan said.

Astronomers have already identified more than 150 molecules in interstellar space in the past 40 years, including complex organic compounds such as sugars and alcohols. "This is a major change in how we search for molecules in space," Remijan explained. "Before, people decided beforehand which molecules they were looking for, then searched in a very narrow band of radio frequencies emitted by those molecules. In this GBT survey, we've observed a wide range of frequencies, collected the data and immediately made it publicly available. Scientists anywhere can 'mine' this resource to find new molecules," he said...

"We know that complex chemicals exist in interstellar space before stars and planets form. With the new research tools coming in the next few years, we're on the verge of learning how the chemistry of the interstellar clouds, the young stars and their environments, and the disks from which planets are formed is all linked together to provide the chemical basis for life on those planets," Remijan explained.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090212161814.htm

[thereismore]

1. Nebulas of sugar. Arrrrrrgh. nt

[Peace Patriot]

2. "...about 240 of those are from unknown molecules." !? Wow, that's intriguing. nt

[On the Road]

3. Thanks for the Link

I love that site, but don't remember to go there very often. They have some great stuff.

Some carbon-based based molecules like quinones have been known for awhile, I think off meteorites. But what they're doing with the wide spectrum collection is amazing. I didn't know that the spectral lines for an element change when it becomes part of a molecule.