Life 'precursors' found around young star

Organic molecules of the sort that become the building blocks of life have been discovered in the gas surrounding a young star, scientists in Denmark say. Life is made up of a series of complex organic molecules, including sugars, and simple sugar molecules were found around the star, they said. "In the protoplanetary disc of gas and dust surrounding the young, newly formed star, we found glycolaldehyde molecules, which are a simple form of sugar," astrophysicist Jes Jorgensen of the Niels Bohr Institute and the Center for Star and Planet Formation at the University of Copenhagen said. The discovery suggests the building blocks of life can already be present during an early period of planet formation, he said. "It is one of the building blocks in the process that leads to the formation of RNA and the first step in the direction of biology." The star in question is relatively close to us at just 400 light-years away, giving researchers with high-resolution telescopes the opportunity to study the details of the dust and gas clouds. In addition to the sugar molecules the researchers also saw signs of a number of other complex organic molecules, including ethylene-glycol, methyl-formate and ethanol, a University of Copenhagen release said Wednesday. "This could potentially tell us something about the possibility that life might arise elsewhere and whether precursors to biology are already present before the planets have been formed," Jorgensen said.