Cosmic Hot Spots Near Stars May Have Helped Create Life

Cosmic hot spots may actually have helped form life. Scientists have found that these hot spots, such as those near stars, could be excellent environments for the creation of nitrogen-containing rings that are key components of nucleobases, which are building blocks of the double helix.

"This is the first time anyone's looked at a hot reaction like this," said Musahid Ahmed, one of the researchers, in a news release.

For decades, astronomers have looked for signatures of these nitrogen-containing double carbon rings called quinolone. More specifically, they've focused on the space between stars, called the interstellar medium. Yet until now, no one has examined the stellar environment for the formation of carbon ring structures.

In order to see whether the stellar environment could harbor such structures, the researchers recreated the conditions near a star. They used a device called a hot nozzle to simulate the pressures and temperatures in stellar environments of carbon-rich stars. They injected gas made of a nitrogen-containing single ringed carbon molecule and two acetylene molecules into the hot nozzle. Then, they probed the hot gas to see which molecules formed.

"There's an energy barrier for this reaction to take place, and you can exceed that barrier near a star or in our experimental setup," said Ahmed. "This suggests that we can start looking for these molecules around stars now."

The findings reveal a bit more about the stellar environment. More specifically, the new study provides evidence that key molecules can be synthesized in these hot environments.

The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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