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Building Blocks in Space

13 January 2023
Astronomy, Biology

At https://phys.org/news/2023-01-blocks-life-meteorite-gloucestershire.html … the bulding blocks of life have been found in a meteorite that landed in a driveway at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire in 2021. Dr Queenie Chan, based at the Royal Holloway campus of the University of London, is pictured holding a sliver of the meteorite. She found organic  compounds from space that hold the secrets of the origin of life. The analysis also found the meteorite was once part of an asteroid, or comet, that  contained liquid water. See also https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13936 ..,

At https://phys.org/news/2023-01-shift-ultraviolet-driven-chemistry-planet-forming-disks.html … the chemistry of planet forming has intrigued scientists of the chemical kind for a long time. This is because the chemical reservoir within proto planetary disks, dust and gas, directly impacts planet composition and the potential for life. New research suggests the chemistry is influenced by ultra violet rays rather than cosmic rays in general, or x-rays. This new understanding provides a chemical signature that helps researchers trace exo-planets to their cosmic nurseries. Modelling has been used, based on assumptions already held about planet formation – but see also https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01831-8 … which goes on to say, if you have a carbon rich environment paired with a UV rich environment due to the evolution of the small solids in planet forming regions, this can produce complex organics in the gas and reproduce these observations. Is electro-magnetism involved in the process?

At https://phys.org/news/2023-01-astronomers-unusual-stellar-explosion-rich.html … astronomers spot an unusual stellar explosion as it is rich in oxygen and magnesium. The study comes from the University of Turku in Finland, concerning what is thought to be a supernova explosion [the death of a massive star]. Astronomers have previously identified supernovae rich in hydrogen, or helium, and more recently one rich in carbon-oxygen.

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