Sugar Found In Space: A Sign of Life? [1]
National Geographic
Ker Than - Published August 29, 2012
Organic molecules found in gas swaddling a young star.
Carbon (gray), oxygen (red), and hydrogen (white) sugar molecules are seen in an artist's impression.Image courtesy L. Calçada, ESO/NOAJ/NRAO
Astronomers have made a sweet discovery: simple sugar molecules floating in the gas around a star [2] some 400 light-years away, suggesting the possibility of life on other planets.
The discovery doesn't prove that life has developed elsewhere in the universe [3]—but it implies that there is no reason it could not. It shows that the carbon-rich molecules that are the building blocks of life can be present even before planets have begun forming.
More: nationalgeographic.com [4].
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