The Stuff of Life:

[beecee]

Just came across an Interesting article..........

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-prebiotic-atmosphere-accretion-disk-baby.html

extract:

"An international research team, led by Chin-Fei Lee of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan), has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect complex organic molecules for the first time in the atmosphere of an accretion disk around a very young protostar. These molecules play a crucial role in producing the rich organic chemistry needed for life. The discovery suggests that the building blocks of life are produced in such disks at the very beginning of star formation and that they are available to be incorporated into planets that form in the disk subsequently. It could help us understand how life came to be on Earth".
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The paper:

 

Abstract

HH 212 is a nearby (400 pc) Class 0 protostellar system recently found to host a "hamburger"-shaped dusty disk with a radius of ~60 au, deeply embedded in an infalling-rotating flattened envelope. We have spatially resolved this envelope-disk system with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at up to ~16 au (004) resolution. The envelope is detected in HCO+ J = 4–3 down to the dusty disk. Complex organic molecules (COMs) and doubly deuterated formaldehyde (D2CO) are detected above and below the dusty disk within ~40 au of the central protostar. The COMs are methanol (CH3OH), deuterated methanol (CH2DOH), methyl mercaptan (CH3SH), and formamide (NH2CHO, a prebiotic precursor). We have modeled the gas kinematics in HCO+ and COMs and found a centrifugal barrier (CB) at a radius of ~44 au, within which a Keplerian rotating disk is formed. This indicates that HCO+ traces the infalling-rotating envelope down to the CB and COMs trace the atmosphere of a Keplerian rotating disk within the CB. The COMs are spatially resolved for the first time, both radially and vertically, in the atmosphere of a disk in the earliest, Class 0 phase of star formation. Our spatially resolved observations of COMs favor their formation in the disk rather than a rapidly infalling (warm) inner envelope. The abundances and spatial distributions of the COMs provide strong constraints on models of their formation and transport in low-mass star formation.

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Outstanding discovery methinks!

Any comments from resident experts?

Edited June 30, 2017 by beecee

[Area54]

Thank you for the link beecee. Very interesting. Given the variety of organic molecules present in GMCs and the ISM these results are not surprising, but nevertheless welcome.

[jimmydasaint]

Are you only calling for experts in the field? And are you supporting the idea of panspermia? Basically what are you calling for?

[StringJunky]

9 hours ago, jimmydasaint said:

Are you only calling for experts in the field? And are you supporting the idea of panspermia? Basically what are you calling for?

You could see it as yet more evidence for the inevitability of life forming rather than specifically supporting Panspermia; the necessary chemicals are/were made in a variety of locations and environments.

[jimmydasaint]

Hi SJ,

I took the point of biological molecules being ubiquitous, but I thought the OP was only asking for Physics experts and I am a hundred feet wide in interests but one inch deep in actual knowledge.  I didn't want to get in the way of experts.

[beecee]

3 minutes ago, jimmydasaint said:

Hi SJ,

I took the point of biological molecules being ubiquitous, but I thought the OP was only asking for Physics experts and I am a hundred feet wide in interests but one inch deep in actual knowledge.  I didn't want to get in the way of experts.

Hi jimmy...Comments are of course welcome from anyone...I specifically mentioned experts because I'm only an amateur lay person myself.

[jimmydasaint]

14 minutes ago, beecee said:

Hi jimmy...Comments are of course welcome from anyone...I specifically mentioned experts because I'm only an amateur lay person myself.

Thanks for that beecee.  I do recall that glycine was found in the corona of certain new stars and this finding reinforces my opinion that life is meant to occur all over the Universe.  However, there is a caveat, and a serious one, IMHO, the basis of life on Earth requires nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA) which are far more complicated than the complex molecules discussed in the abstract and could require a number of steps to reach the necessary complexity to form DNA.  The other issue involves how basic molecules could be transported to Earth for abiogenesis to occur. 

[beecee]

13 minutes ago, jimmydasaint said:

Thanks for that beecee.  I do recall that glycine was found in the corona of certain new stars and this finding reinforces my opinion that life is meant to occur all over the Universe.  However, there is a caveat, and a serious one, IMHO, the basis of life on Earth requires nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA) which are far more complicated than the complex molecules discussed in the abstract and could require a number of steps to reach the necessary complexity to form DNA.  The other issue involves how basic molecules could be transported to Earth for abiogenesis to occur. 

Abiogenesis of course is really the only scientific answer as to explaining life...My question would be did it occur more then once throughout the universe, and on which you touched. And was Earth a cradle for it? Or did and does Panspermia play a part?

I would explain the Fermi paradox by simply invoking the two great barriers inhibiting  the discovery of ETL,  time and distance... 

Edited August 20, 2017 by beecee