10-11-2019, 07:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2019, 07:08 AM by Deesse23.)
Enceladus produces precursors to amino acids
Enceladus produces precursors to amino acids
N Khawaja and his team from the free university Berlin have good reason to believe they have found precursors to amino acids in spectra obtained from Enceladus.
While even bigger molecules have been found earlier, those were most probably not not soluble in water (which is availiable in abundant amounts in the form of ice) and pretty "heavy". What Khawaja have found are molecules that are soluble in water (and very small in comarison, making them more mobile) and thus able to spread on the icy moon and get to places where they might combine into amino acids (like in thermal vents).
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/4...31/5573821
While even bigger molecules have been found earlier, those were most probably not not soluble in water (which is availiable in abundant amounts in the form of ice) and pretty "heavy". What Khawaja have found are molecules that are soluble in water (and very small in comarison, making them more mobile) and thus able to spread on the icy moon and get to places where they might combine into amino acids (like in thermal vents).
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/4...31/5573821
R.I.P. Hannes