by Elton Gomes
Scientists have identified a group of exoplanets outside the earth’s solar system that have the same chemical conditions that may have allowed life on earth to develop.
Published in the Science Advances journal, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), found that stars that give off sufficient ultraviolet (UV) light can allow life to develop on their orbiting planets, similar to the way life began on earth. On earth, UV light powers several chemical reactions that produce the building blocks of life.
The researchers have identified a range of planets where UV light from the host star is adequate enough to allow these chemical reactions to take place. These planets also lie within the habitable range where liquid water can exist on the planets surface.
This work allows us to narrow down the best places to search for life, Paul Rimmer, a postdoctoral researcher with a joint affiliation at Cambridge and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said, as per a PTI report. Rimmer added, It brings us just a little bit closer to addressing the question of whether we are alone in the universe.
The new study is the outcome between the ongoing collaboration between the Cavendish Laboratory and the MRC LMB, thereby combining the disciplines of organic chemistry and exoplanet research. The new research builds on the work on Professor John Sutherland, a co-author in the current paper, who studies the chemical origin of life on Earth.
In a study published in 2015, Professor Sutherland’s group at the MRC LMB surmised that although cyanide is a deadly poison, it was an important ingredient in the principal mix from which all life on earth originated.
Hydrogen cyanide could be key when it comes in contact with UV light. According to an article originally published in the Conversation, shining ultraviolet light on hydrogen cyanide in water, along with a negatively charged ion such as bisulfite, results in the creation of simple sugars.
Moreover, hydrogen cyanide is available in abundant amounts in comets and in the ”protoplanetary disks” that form solar systems. In certain environments, under the right conditions, hydrogen cyanide and a negatively charged ion could lead to the formation of building blocks of life. However, the reaction depends to the right amount of UV light. If UV light is absent, hydrogen cyanide and bisulfite molecules slowly react, but do not form products that result in the creation of the building blocks of life.
Elton Gomes is a staff writer at Qrius