A new study shows that formaldehyde, a poisonous chemical, could be one of the factors that led to the creation of organic compounds that gave rise to life.
Formaldehyde formed from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is a common molecule found in the Solar System. This chemical compound is commonly used on Earth in conservation actions such as anointing or biological samples.
The organic molecules, in the composition of which is carbon is found, are found in solid forms on asteroids and comets. Scientists have been puzzled by the source of these organic molecules, professionals wanting to understand how they occurred. The answer they found recently is that they probably were created from formaldehyde in the primitive Solar System.
George Cody and his co-researchers, Conel Alexander and Larry Nittler Carnegie at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, studied the carbon content of the meteorites to obtain information on the original organic compounds. "It is ironic that it is very likely that life appeared to be due to formaldehyde, a substance that is poisonous to living organisms on Earth," they said.
To test the hypothesis that formaldehyde was the origin of life, scientists have developed a chemical process to produce organic compounds with formaldehyde as a starting point. They left the reaction to proceed, then the results are analyzed.
Organic molecules obtained in the laboratory showed a striking resemblance to those found in meteorites and other organic material collected in the solar system (samples collected from comet 81P/Wild 2, interplanetary dust particles and other asteroids or comets).
From the knowledge gained from research our primitive solar system, it appears that the chemical reaction produced in the laboratory may explain how organic compounds from outer space occurred naturally.
This study was published online on April 4, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
