{"id":280391,"date":"2025-11-24T10:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/280391\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T10:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T10:03:09","slug":"scientists-find-space-dust-may-be-needed-for-life-in-first-study-of-its-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/280391\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists find space dust may be needed for life, in first study of its kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Particles of space dust may be vital in increasing the building blocks required for life, scientists leading the first study of its kind have said.<\/p>\n

A team of researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working alongside teams from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, in Germany, and the University of Virginia in the US to show that mineral dust acts as a catalyst, which can help simple molecules turn into more complex, potentially life-forming molecules, even in the vacuum and extreme cold of space.<\/p>\n

Their latest study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, found that surface reactions between carbon dioxide and ammonia \u2013 both common in space \u2013 only occur efficiently when dust is present.<\/p>\n

These reactions form ammonium carbamate, a compound thought to be a chemical precursor to urea and other molecules essential to life.<\/p>\n

Professor Martin McCoustra, an astrochemist from Heriot-Watt University, said: \u201cDust isn\u2019t just a passive background ingredient in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides surfaces where molecules can meet, react and form more complex species.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some regions of space, this dust chemistry is a prerequisite for making life\u2019s molecular building blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now know that surface reactions occur efficiently \u2013 more quickly \u2013 with the dust than without.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Dr Alexey Potapov\u2019s laboratory in Jena, Germany, dusty sandwiches of thin layers of carbon dioxide and ammonia separated by a layer of porous silicate grains produced by laser evaporation made a realistic stand-in for cosmic dust.<\/p>\n

When the samples frozen at minus 260\u00b0C (similar to interstellar clouds) and were warmed to about minus 190\u00b0C (conditions found as these clouds evolve into protoplanetary disks), the molecules spread through the dust layer and reacted to form ammonium carbamate.<\/p>\n

Without the dust layer, the researchers found the icy molecules did not react as well.<\/p>\n

The team identified this as an example of acid\u2013base catalysis involving the transfer of protons \u2013 the first time such chemistry has been observed under simulated space conditions.<\/p>\n

Dr Alexey Potapov said: \u201cThe findings suggest that dust grains play a far more active role in astrochemistry than previously thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloating through interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks, these particles may provide the micro-environments where molecules meet and evolve into more complex forms.<\/p>\n

Prof McCoustra added: \u201cWe\u2019ve shown that dust can promote the chemistry needed to build more complex organics, even at extremely low temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could be how nature overcomes the harshness of space to kickstart chemistry that ultimately leads to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers plan to explore whether other molecules can form in the same way, and whether this dust-driven chemistry is taking place today in protoplanetary disks, where new planets are being born.<\/p>\n

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