A key sugar found in DNA has been created in the laboratory under conditions similar to those around comets.
Ribose forms the backbone of DNA and RNA, but its ancient origin remains a mystery. Cornelia Meinert and Uwe Meierhenrich of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France and their team created an artificial comet by condensing water, methanol and ammonia in a vacuum chamber at −195 °C. The material was irradiated with ultraviolet light to simulate the formation of cometary ices. The residues that formed when the material was warmed to room temperature contained ribose and other, similar sugars in amounts that were much greater than just trace levels.
The authors suggest that comets and meteorites are the source of organic molecules that made life possible on Earth.
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Sugars made in simulated space. Nature 532, 151 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/532151b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/532151b
