How life could 盗U资金自动化混币have originated in space: Scientists find key to its beginnings in interstellar ice

April 24, 2025  15:11

An international team of scientists from France and the U.S. has made a groundbreaking discovery that reshapes our understanding of life’s origins. In the icy depths of space, on nanoparticles of interstellar dust, billions of years ago, molecules essential for a critical life process—the Krebs cycle—formed. This suggests that the foundation of living organisms could have emerged long before Earth existed. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study opens new horizons in the search for life in the universe. Here’s how it happened, what the scientists found, and why it changes everything.

The Krebs Cycle in Space: How Life Began in Ice

The Krebs cycle, or citric acid cycle, is the “energy engine” of all living cells, converting nutrients into energy to fuel respiration, growth, and cell division. Scientists from the Institute of Chemistry in Nice (CNRS) and the University of Hawaii at Manoa wondered: could the molecules for this process have formed in space?

To test this, they recreated interstellar conditions in the lab:

• A mixture of simple molecules (water, methane, ammonia) was frozen at −260°C, mimicking icy particles in space.
• The samples were exposed to cosmic radiation typical of star-forming regions, like the Orion Nebula.
• Using infrared spectroscopy and chromatography, researchers analyzed the resulting compounds.

The results were astonishing: the artificial “cosmic ice” produced a complete set of organic molecules for the Krebs cycle, including citric, isocitric, and α-ketoglutaric acids. These compounds, typically synthesized in cells, formed on icy nanoparticles under radiation. This means the basis of life’s metabolism could have originated in space before planets formed.

“We breathe thanks to chemistry that began on interstellar dust billions of years ago,” the scientists declared. Their discovery supports the panspermiatheory, which posits that life on Earth may have been seeded by comets or meteorites carrying pre-formed organic molecules.

Why Is This Important?

The discovery transforms our view of life’s origins:

• Cosmic Origins: Previously, complex organic molecules were thought to form on planets in “primordial soups” of warm oceans. Now, they’re proven to arise in cold interstellar clouds, billions of years before Earth’s formation.
• Universal Life: The Krebs cycle underpins the metabolism of all Earth organisms, from bacteria to humans. Its presence in space suggests life elsewhere may follow similar biochemical pathways.
• Search for Habitable Worlds: Detecting Krebs cycle molecules in space provides a new tool for finding life. Telescopes like the James Webb can search for these compounds in exoplanet atmospheres or comets.

For context, in 2025, the James Webb Telescope found carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b, and the OSIRIS-REx mission delivered organic molecules, including amino acids, from asteroid Bennu. This discovery adds a missing piece—metabolic molecules bridging simple chemistry to life.

Connections to Other Discoveries

The study aligns with other 2025 astronomical breakthroughs:

• University of Arizona’s Coronagraph: This starlight-blocking tool aids exoplanet searches, potentially spotting Krebs cycle molecules and boosting chances of finding habitable worlds.
• Andromeda Anomaly: Andromeda’s satellites, aligned toward the Milky Way, hint at ancient mergers that may have spread organic molecules across space.
• Dark Matter in Perseus: Collisions in clusters like Perseus created conditions for star formation, where “life-giving” molecules formed.

Together, these findings paint a picture: the universe isn’t just a chaos of stars but a “life factory,” with comets, asteroids, and interstellar dust distributing the building blocks of life.

What Do Scientists and Users Say?

Scientists call the find a “new paradigm” for astrobiology, offering a method to search for habitable zones, such as protoplanetary disks where planets form. X users are thrilled: “Life began in space? It’s like learning we’re children of the stars!” Some joke: “Now we wait for xAI’s Grok to find the Krebs cycle on Mars via an iPhone camera.” Skeptics, however, note that molecules aren’t life itself, and evidence of their transformation into cells is still needed.

What’s Next?

The team plans to expand experiments:

• Test whether Krebs cycle molecules can form in other conditions, like gas giant atmospheres.
• Analyze comets and asteroids from missions like Hayabusa2 for these compounds.
• Use telescopes, such as the Nancy Grace Roman (launching 2027), to search for these molecules in star-forming regions like the Eagle Nebula.

In Xiong’an, China’s tech hub, AI is already aiding telescope data analysis, and such discoveries could accelerate the search for life. If Krebs cycle molecules are found in abundance in space, it would strengthen the idea that life is not a rarity but a cosmic norm.