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MIT researchers have discovered that amino acids—main constructing blocks for all times on Earth—are steady in extremely concentrated sulfuric acid. Their outcomes help the concept these similar molecules could also be steady in Venus’ extremely sulfuric clouds. Credit score: JAXA/J. J. Petkowski
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MIT researchers have discovered that amino acids—main constructing blocks for all times on Earth—are steady in extremely concentrated sulfuric acid. Their outcomes help the concept these similar molecules could also be steady in Venus’ extremely sulfuric clouds. Credit score: JAXA/J. J. Petkowski
If there may be life within the photo voltaic system past Earth, it is likely to be discovered within the clouds of Venus. In distinction to the planet’s blisteringly inhospitable floor, Venus’ cloud layer, which extends from 30 to 40 miles above the floor, hosts milder temperatures that might help some excessive types of life.
If it is on the market, scientists have assumed that any Venusian cloud inhabitant would look very completely different from life types on Earth. That is as a result of the clouds themselves are produced from extremely poisonous droplets of sulfuric acid—an intensely corrosive chemical that’s recognized to dissolve metals and destroy most organic molecules on Earth.
However a brand new research by MIT researchers might problem that assumption. Printed at the moment within the journal Astrobiology, the research studies that, the truth is, some key constructing blocks of life can persist in options of concentrated sulfuric acid.
The research’s authors have discovered that 19 amino acids which are important to life on Earth are steady for as much as 4 weeks when positioned in vials of sulfuric acid at concentrations just like these in Venus’ clouds. Particularly, they discovered that the molecular “spine” of all 19 amino acids remained intact in sulfuric acid options ranging in focus from 81% to 98%.
“What is completely shocking is that concentrated sulfuric acid will not be a solvent that’s universally hostile to natural chemistry,” says research co-author Janusz Petkowski, a analysis affiliate in MIT’s Division of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).
“We’re discovering that constructing blocks of life on Earth are steady in sulfuric acid, and that is very intriguing for the thought of the potential for life on Venus,” provides research writer Sara Seager, MIT’s Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in EAPS and a professor within the departments of Physics and of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “It does not imply that life there would be the similar as right here. In reality, we all know it will probably’t be. However this work advances the notion that Venus’ clouds might help complicated chemical substances wanted for all times.”
The research’s co-authors embody first writer Maxwell Seager, an undergraduate within the Division of Chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Seager’s son, and William Bains, a analysis affiliate at MIT and a scientist at Cardiff College.
Constructing blocks in acid
The seek for life in Venus’ clouds has gained momentum lately, spurred partially by a controversial detection of phosphine—a molecule that’s thought of to be one signature of life—within the planet’s environment. Whereas that detection stays below debate, the information has reinvigorated an previous query: May Earth’s sister planet really host life?
Looking for a solution, scientists are planning a number of missions to Venus, together with the primary largely privately funded mission to the planet, backed by California-based launch firm Rocket Lab. That mission, on which Seager is the science principal investigator, goals to ship a spacecraft via the planet’s clouds to research their chemistry for indicators of natural molecules.
Forward of the mission’s January 2025 launch, Seager and her colleagues have been testing numerous molecules in concentrated sulfuric acid to see what fragments of life on Earth may also be steady in Venus’ clouds, that are estimated to be orders of magnitude extra acidic than essentially the most acidic locations on Earth.
“Individuals have this notion that concentrated sulfuric acid is a particularly aggressive solvent that may chop every thing to items,” Petkowski says. “However we’re discovering this isn’t essentially true.”
In reality, the group has beforehand proven that complicated natural molecules corresponding to some fatty acids and nucleic acids stay surprisingly steady in sulfuric acid. The scientists are cautious to emphasise, as they do of their present paper, that “complicated natural chemistry is in fact not life, however there isn’t a life with out it.”
In different phrases, if sure molecules can persist in sulfuric acid, then maybe the extremely acidic clouds of Venus are liveable, if not essentially inhabited.
Of their new research, the group turned their concentrate on amino acids—molecules that mix to make important proteins, every with their very own particular operate. Each residing factor on Earth requires amino acids to make proteins that in flip perform life-sustaining capabilities, from breaking down meals to producing power, constructing muscle, and repairing tissue.
“In case you think about the 4 main constructing blocks of life as nucleic acid bases, amino acids, fatty acids, and carbohydrates, we’ve got demonstrated that some fatty acids can kind micelles and vesicles in sulfuric acid, and the nucleic acid bases are steady in sulfuric acid. Carbohydrates have been proven to be extremely reactive in sulfuric acid,” Maxwell
Seager explains. “That solely left us with amino acids because the final main constructing block tostudy.”
Extra data:
Maxwell D. Seager et al, Stability of 20 Biogenic Amino Acids in Concentrated Sulfuric Acid: Implications for the Habitability of Venus’ Clouds, Astrobiology (2024). DOI: 10.1089/ast.2023.0082
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