Dutch researchers go on the outside of the international space station (ISS) in search of the evolutionary history of the solar system.
Wednesday leaves an unmanned Russian spacecraft to the ISS aboard with a number of containers containing chemical compounds. They are a year exposed to cosmic radiation. Then they returned to Earth for analysis.
The Dutch containers contain different types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which on Earth are notorious for their carcinogenic properties. Most carbon - a basic element trees, plants, animals and humans have in common - in the universe in form of PAHs.
Molecules essential for life, such as amino acids, proteins and DNA, consist of chains of carbon atoms strung. Once the carbon that must have reached earth from space.
But how and in what form, is still a mystery. The radiation levels in space are too high for this prebiotic molecules, precursors of life, so long may persist.
"We are curious how PAHs evolve in cosmic terms and conditions for products that develop. Since PAHs are also found in comets and meteorites, we hope it can reconstruct the events in the origin of our solar system, "says Pascale Ehren Freud, the Leiden astro biologist who has set up the experiment. According to her, the conditions in the area not to simulate on Earth.
An astronaut, the containers next month to the exterior of the ISS, where a special 'outdoor laboratory' is mounted.
Wednesday leaves an unmanned Russian spacecraft to the ISS aboard with a number of containers containing chemical compounds. They are a year exposed to cosmic radiation. Then they returned to Earth for analysis.
The Dutch containers contain different types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which on Earth are notorious for their carcinogenic properties. Most carbon - a basic element trees, plants, animals and humans have in common - in the universe in form of PAHs.
Molecules essential for life, such as amino acids, proteins and DNA, consist of chains of carbon atoms strung. Once the carbon that must have reached earth from space.
But how and in what form, is still a mystery. The radiation levels in space are too high for this prebiotic molecules, precursors of life, so long may persist.
"We are curious how PAHs evolve in cosmic terms and conditions for products that develop. Since PAHs are also found in comets and meteorites, we hope it can reconstruct the events in the origin of our solar system, "says Pascale Ehren Freud, the Leiden astro biologist who has set up the experiment. According to her, the conditions in the area not to simulate on Earth.
An astronaut, the containers next month to the exterior of the ISS, where a special 'outdoor laboratory' is mounted.
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