Space Organics

A report came out today that was published on multiple news sites discussing a new chemical find in space.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy have detected—ethyl formate and n-propyl cyanide— the two most complex organic molecules ever found in interstellar space. This discovery was made in an area of space called Sagittarius B2 in our galaxy. Other organic chemicals have been found previously such as alcohols (mostly methanol), aldehydes, and acids, but these are the most complex to date.

The articles site two theories of how these compounds can be created: an atom by atom assembly through collisions in the gaseous particles, or reactions on small grains of dust suspended in the gas. The current computational models suggest that these compounds are formed in sections from pre-existing molecules on the dust grains. In this way larger and more complex molecules can be built up in sections over time. What is striking is that there seems to be no limit to the size of the products that are created in this way, so as one can imagine…its only a matter of time till we are seeing some of the complex building blocks of life such as amino acids.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421080506.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8009014.stm