Naphthalene Found In Outer Space

Adam Korbitz writes with an excerpt from his blog on an exciting discovery in space: "A team of researchers led by Spanish scientists has published their discovery of the complex molecule naphthalene in an interstellar star-forming cloud, indicating many prebiotic organic molecules necessary for life as we know it could have been present when our own solar system formed. According to the new research — published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters — the naphthalene molecules were discovered 700 light-years from Earth in a star-forming region of the constellation Perseus, in the direction of the star Cernis 52."

Comments

This is evidence of life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Naphtalene--or better known as the primary ingredient in MOTHBALLS
 
At last. We know the secret coordinates of Mothra. (S)he lies in the constellation Perseus. This may lead us to discover the origins of Godzilla.
 
My girlfriend brought over brownies...

Re:This is evidence of life.

[AnomaliesAndrew]

So not only are the universe and my grandparents both extremely old, but they both smell the same now... great.

Re:This is evidence of life.

[Laser Dan]

Mothballs are exciting only to moths.
A moth without balls is a eunuch.
I would say that mothballs are extremely important to moths.

This is Slashdot so I can see I need to explain something.
I apologise for using a term you may be unfamiliar with, but a moth without balls is called a female moth.

Re:me no RTFA

[pushing-robot]

With one of these.

Unbeknownst to many

[Trails]

An early draft of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001:A Space Odyssey contained the line

My God, it's full of mothballs

which was changed during editing, but further reinforces the prescience of Mr. Clarke.

Re:me no RTFA

[icegreentea]

They found the absorption spectrum of the naphthalene cation in the light. \
""We have detected the presence of the naphthalene cation in a cloud of interstellar matter located 700 lightyears from the Earth", says IAC researcher Susana Iglesias Groth."

No moths in outer space!

[kybur]

I always wondered why there were no moths in outer space. This explains everything!

Re:No moths in outer space!

[Tablizer]

I've always wondered why the elderly are so keen on mothballs. Were there more moths around 75 years ago?

Natural fibers are more susceptible to them than synthetics, which we use more of now.

Re:No moths in outer space!

[arth1]

Natural fibers are more susceptible to them than synthetics, which we use more of now.

A plausible answer, but a wrong one. It's not just moths that are more scarce inside our homes, but other flying insects too. Few homes have fly paper hanging in various rooms anymore. And young people today panic if they get a bumblebee inside the house -- they simply don't know how to deal with it, because they almost never have to.

The reason is simply that insects had an easier time flying through an open window or chimney than an air conditioner or electric/gas powered heater. The window screen is pretty new too -- even where available earlier, the windows were usually side-hinged and not sliding, and window screens had to be much bigger, and it was a hassle to add and remove them.

These days, you only get large flying insects entering when a door is open.
Cockroaches, ants and other crawling insects, you still get. And fruit flies, which people bring in with plants and produce.

Re:No moths in outer space!

[Kagura]

Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.

Also, I am AC.

Re:me no RTFA

[pushing-robot]

Sorry, in my hurry I was wrong again. These articles cover the astronomical uses of spectroscopy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectrum

Another win for panspermia theory

[symbolset]

Literally "the origin of life is everywhere," panspermia theory posits that the seeds life exist all over the universe. A related but separate theory called "exogenesis" posits that life began somewhere other than Earth and was delivered here.

We've observed vast clouds of organic material far larger than our galaxy in the reaches of space. Now we've discovered prebiotic chemicals there. It's not that much of a stretch to guess that life-as-we-know-it is not uncommon. Intelligence (such as it is?) may be less common. Given the vastness of space and time it's not unreasonable to hope that we're not alone.

OIL!

[sanman2]

Time to invade

Re:OIL!

[linumax]

Time to invade

Time to Liberate(TM).

Re:OIL!

[Lord Lode]

Woot, just 1400 years of flying there and back and it's all ours on Earth!

Re:me no RTFA

[Tablizer]

How exactly does one detect specific molecules, 700 light years away?

Using Google, of course

     

Re:me no RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

With one of these.
   
.
 
.
 
.
 
times 1E17

abiogenesis is cool!

[purpleraison]

For those not familiar with the field of abiogenesis, it is a truly remarkable field of study. The search for the first origin of life on our planet, or rather when organic matter achieved 'life' as we understand it.

I find it quite interesting personally, how the primordial sludge brewed into our very first ancestor.

Excelsior!!

Re:abiogenesis is cool!

[TapeCutter]

Good video explaination of abiogensis, from the museum of science. No gods, no aliens, no impossible improbability, no fungus covered comets, no lightning striking mud puddles, just chemistry and physics! Nice soundtrack too....enjoy!

Re:simple molecule

[symbolset]

napthalene is a simple aromatic hydrocarbon, basically one benzene ring fused with another. molecular formula C10H8. hydrocarbons can be cracked under certain conditions to produce various aromatic hydrocarbons so finding it in space could be fairly common if there are hydrocarbons near a source capable of cracking them.

Great. Now you need to explain why by accident vast quantities of the organic material hydrocarbons were converted to napthalene in sufficient quantity to be detected at a range of 400 lightyears, and then explain how this event is locally unique so that it didn't happen in every corner of the universe. Good luck with that. May I offer you a noodle? You need only let it touch you to feel its effects.

Re:me no RTFA

[Kardos]

with one of these: http://images.craveonline.com/article_imgs/Image/smelloscope.jpg

The reason why this is important

[spineboy]

Napthalene is a conjugated benzene ring compound. This then somewhat shows that complex ring compounds can be made in space. If these, then, can be made, then the jump to the DNA bases, and amino acid bases is not too far away.

Re:The reason why this is important

[moderatorrater]

Perhaps, then, the Star Trek vision of the future, where all life forms are similar, could be correct, at least to the extent that they're all DNA and carbon based? Also, wouldn't this push the chances of life evolving on a suitable planet close to 100%?

Re:The reason why this is important

[Kagura]

The chance of life evolving on a suitable planet is already 100%. ;)

Re:The reason why this is important

[moderatorrater]

Unless I'm misreading your comment, you're mistaking observed rate for overall chance.

Re:The reason why this is important

[magarity]

Ah, but what's the chance of intelligent life evolving?

Re:The reason why this is important

[JaumPaw]

Now, now, no need to be cynical.

Re:The reason why this is important

[David Gerard]

Star Trek had silicon-based lifeforms. Silicone-based lifeforms are a bit more like this.

Re:I don't believe it!

[ufoolme]

You obversely haven't played spore.

Re:ummmm /confused

[usul294]

When a electron leaves an excited state it emits a photon. Every element and molecule has a unique set of frequencies for these transfers. So by looking at the light coming off of it, you can figure out whats in it. Its called spectroscopy. If in high school chemistry you ever burned chemicals and used a cardboard thing over your eye to see lines, you've got the basic idea.

Re:ummmm /confused

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't know the difference between microbes and molecules, you should probably go read some science books.

Re:Would it really be that hard?

[symbolset]

For all we know, our solar system just whipped right through a cloud of stellar cooked organics, and we practically just have life rained down on our little world.

And since all the stars we can closely observe have planets, to expect that the star that went supernova and gave us all the elements above Iron did not also have them is perhaps silly.

So... Is the "stuff of life" common or not? Further study is needed and is under way. We may discover in the Oort cloud the seeds of life. If we do, that should lay the question to rest.