Astrophysicists have discovered in the interstellar complex organic compound.
Astrophysics National radio astronomy Observatory detected in interstellar complex organic compound, which possess chirality. Scientists have proposed the mechanism of the synthesis of such molecules can help to solve the problem of homochirality of life on Earth. A study published in the journal Science.
Many organic molecules have their mirrored copies, which they cannot mentally reconcile. They resemble the right and left hand. About a molecule they say that it has chirality (from al-Greek. χειρ — “hand”), and this property is typical for most biologically significant compounds. These forms were found to have fallen to the Ground meteorites, and also in the substance of comets, but interstellar space, they still were not found.
Astrophysics with high-sensitivity 100-meter Green Bank radio telescope could look at the space of the first complex organic molecule with chirality — propylene oxide. The substance is located near the center of the milky Way in zvezdopada the cloud of dust and gas known as Sagittarius B2.
Complex organic molecules are formed in interstellar clouds in several ways. For example, the individual compounds can interfere with each other and merge to form a more complex substance. However, once there are such large molecules, like methanol, this process becomes less effective. To go further and to propylene oxide, small pieces of ice, according to scientists, should serve as a substrate on which are deposited small molecules. Latest can connect with each other, synthesizing more complex structures. The resulting compounds evaporated with ice pellets and fall into the space where you enter into chemical reactions with other substances.
The data obtained, however, do not allow to determine which chiral forms (enantiomers) of propylene oxide was detected. Enantiomers have identical melting points, boiling point and freezing-point spectra acquisition. However, astrophysicists believe that figuring it out will help the study of how molecules interact with the rays of polarized light.
The discovery of the propylene oxide opens the way for further experiments that should help to understand how and where the formation of chiral compounds, as well as to solve the problem of homochirality. Because every living creature on Earth contains molecules of only one chiral form, it is not clear how was made the choice in its favor. At the same time, DNA, for example, might not be stable if it consisted of “left” and “right” enantiomers. Scientists believe that their discovery suggests that an important role in homochirality played the formation of organic matter in outer space.
