14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new series of scientific investigations, it could be that the first molecules underlying the development of life on this planet did not appear here at all.
These molecules have chiralities, as in spins, that are predominantly oriented towards the left side, although theoretically right-oriented ones should have been as equally as easy to produce.
[ADMARK=]This weird bias the chirality of molecules on Earth have towards the left side could have been produced by the effects of a supernova explosion reaching our planet, researchers now believe.
If the finding is confirmed, then it could provide definite evidence that life on our planet actually came from other space, and only settled here due to the right conditions it found.
Organic molecules, including amino-acids, are all left-handed, even though an equal number of right-handed ones should also exist. This discrepancy has been puzzling scientists for decades.
The fact that samples obtained from asteroids and meteorites were also found to exhibit left-handed chiral molecules made some experts propose that the Universe as a whole is biased towards such a type of spin, Space reports.
Researchers at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) say that the nitrogen atoms in the amino-acid molecules are the main elements that may have influenced the structure's overall chirality.
The group here explains that, when a supernova explodes, it produces an intense burst of electron antineutrinos. These elementary particles apparently have certain preferences.
Researchers say that they interact first and foremost with nitrogen atoms in right-handed molecules, a fact that may help explain why the entire Universe appears to be predominantly left-handed.
The new idea was proposed by LLNL nuclear astrophysicist and study researchers Richard Boyd, who details the proposal with his coauthors in the June issue of the top-rated scientific journal Astrobiology.
Boyd explains that antineutrinos have a tendency to convert nitrogen atoms in right-handed amino acids into carbon atoms.
This inclination could help explain why most of the right-handed amino-acids in the Universe appear to have disappeared without a trace.
“I find it really mind-boggling that the same constraints that exist on our chemicals of life might also exist for every other entity in the universe,” the LLNL expert says.
“If other entities are out there, the constraints on their chemistry appear to be sufficiently similar to ours that we may have lots of things in common with them,” Boyd concludes.