Succeeded in molecular detection of “sugar” from meteorite Tohoku University and other research groups 5/36
Research groups such as Tohoku University have announced that they have succeeded in detecting the molecules of sugar that are indispensable for life from the meteorites that have fallen to the earth. It may have become. "
In space and asteroids, there are increasing examples of simple amino acids being detected due to the development of observation technology, but until now no “sugar” molecules that are essential to life have been discovered.
Research groups such as Associate Professor Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University have developed a new method for detecting sugar from rocks and analyzed three meteorite fragments that have fallen from space to Australia and other places. This means that we have succeeded in detecting “ribose”, a kind of sugar that is also a material for RNA related to genetics.
The detected ribose is a very small amount of 25ppb at maximum, and sugars such as xylose and arabinose were also detected.
The ratio of carbon isotopes in the detected ribose indicates that it was synthesized in space, not on Earth.
The group believes that it was created by a special chemical reaction when the asteroid that was the source of the meteorite was born more than 4 billion years ago.
Associate professor Furukawa says, “Ribose carried by meteorites in ancient times may have become part of the life material born on Earth.”