Earth may have received vitamin B3 supplied by carbon-rich meteorites, according to NASA-funded researchers, supporting the theory that earthly life may have originated with extraterrestrial assistance. Vitamin B3, also known as nicotinic acid or niacin, is a precursor to compounds essential to metabolism, and has long been believed to have possible origins beyond ancient Earth. Researchers previously found vitamin B3 in 2001 in the Tagish Lake meteorite. Another team of researchers, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., recently analyzed samples from eight different carbon-rich meteorites and found vitamin B3 at levels ranging from about 30 to 600 parts-per-billion. The researchers said they found less vitamin B3 on meteorites that came from asteroids that were more altered by liquid water – a pattern that suggests extraterrestrial origins. They also simulated interstellar space conditions in the lab to show synthesis of vitamin B3 and other pyridine carboxylic acids could be possible on ice grains. Scientists believe the solar system formed when a dense cloud of gas, dust, and ice grains collapsed under its own gravity, and some of that matter clumped into comets and asteroids and then collided together to form the building blocks for planets and moons. Radiation from nearby stars or violent events in deep space may have powered chemical reactions in the nebula that formed the solar system, scientists say, and some of those reactions could have produced biologically essential molecules such as vitamin B3. The NASA-funded research team doubts the vitamin B3 they found came from terrestrial life because it was found along with other molecules with the same chemical formula but different atomic structures that aren’t used by life. Life makes only the molecules it needs, scientists said, so if life was the source of the vitamin B3 molecules, then only the vitamin would have been found – and not the other, related molecules. The team plans to conduct more interstellar simulations to better understand how vitamin B3 formed on ice grains in space. [Image via Agence France-Presse]

NEXT
BING NEWS:
  • Space and Astronomy
    By Kenneth Chang Boeing’s Starliner Overcomes Malfunctioning Thrusters to Dock at Space Station Two NASA astronauts ... for evidence that there was once life on the red planet.
    06/13/2024 - 12:22 am | View Link
  • Space
    June 13, 2024 • A NASA simulation accidentally aired on the space agency's livestream. NASA said all crew members are healthy, safe and preparing for a spacewalk scheduled for Thursday.
    06/12/2024 - 12:59 pm | View Link
  • NASA weighs potential impacts of helium leaks and more on Boeing's Starliner astronaut test flight
    Starliner launched on June 5, carrying NASA astronauts ... and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was ...
    06/11/2024 - 1:00 pm | View Link
  • A dive bar wedding valued at $30,000 is being given away this summer by Miller High Life and Planters
    Miller High Life and Planters have teamed to give away a dive bar wedding this summer, valued at around $30,000, according to the beer brand. Through 11:59 p.m. CT June 25, people at least 21 ...
    06/11/2024 - 8:28 am | View Link
  • Nutritionist says take anti-dementia vitamin that only costs 2p per pill in the summer
    revealed just why vitamin D is such a necessary component to a healthy life whether it comes in pill or sun form - and said people should take it all year round. She shared: “Contrary to popular ...
    06/10/2024 - 3:26 am | View Link
  • More

 

NEXT
Welcome to Wopular!

Welcome to Wopular

Wopular is an online newspaper rack, giving you a summary view of the top headlines from the top news sites.

Senh Duong (Founder)
Wopular, MWB, RottenTomatoes

Subscribe to Wopular's RSS Fan Wopular on Facebook Follow Wopular on Twitter Follow Wopular on Google Plus

MoviesWithButter : Our Sister Site

Movies With Butter More Movie News

More Politics News

  • Share of ‘Double Haters’ Hits Historic High
    Political Wire, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 09:58 AM

    A new Pew Research poll finds 25% of Americans hold unfavorable views of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump — the highest share of “double haters” at this stage in any of the last 10 elections. Axios: “The closely watched bloc has nearly doubled in size since 2020, making this fall’s Trump vs.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • Clean Up on Aisle Trump
    Political Wire, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 09:55 AM

    Punchbowl News: “Trump disparaged Milwaukee, the city where he’ll formally accept the GOP presidential nomination next month. He also told a bizarre story involving an imagined relationship with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And he suggested a new tariff idea.” “It was vintage Trump, treating the gathering like a campaign rally. The following few hours were dominated by GOP lawmakers and Trump campaign officials haranguing reporters for the portrayal of his comments about Milwaukee.” “Trump called Milwaukee a ‘horrible city,’ then some House Republicans claimed he never said it, and then they admitted he said it but that he didn’t mean it.” “It felt like we were back in the ‘clean-up on aisle Trump’ news cycles of 2017 all over again.”

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • How Pollsters Are Trying to Fix Their Polls
    Political Wire, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 09:46 AM

    “Candidates and voters alike are wondering whether they can trust the polls ahead of November’s elections,” Axios reports. “The 2016 and 2020 elections rocked public confidence in polling after many underestimated the amount of support for former President Trump. Meanwhile, pollsters are having to adapt their methods, with fewer respondents answering the phone.”

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • Lawmakers Deny Themselves a Raise Again
    Political Wire, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 09:40 AM

    Washington Post: “It’s been 15 years since members of the House and Senate allowed their federally mandated cost-of-living adjustment (often referred to as COLA) to take effect. Since then, their pay has been set at $174,000.” “Out of political fear from voters in both their primary and general elections, lawmakers have repeatedly inserted language into government funding bills that prohibits their COLA from taking effect, as happened again late Thursday night in the House Appropriations Committee.”

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • These UK Tourists Are Down for Swimming With Sharks—Would You Be?
    Mother Jones, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 06:00 AM

    This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. We have only been waiting in the grey Atlantic swell a few moments when the first flash of metallic blue appears in the water. A blue shark, a few miles from the coast of Penzance in Cornwall, emerges from the depths.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • Citing Health Concerns, Some Jewish New Yorkers Push Back Against Proposed Mask Ban
    Mother Jones, Saturday - 06/15/2024 - 06:00 AM

    The day after the North Carolina legislature passed a bill restricting the use of masks, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul alarmed disability rights advocates when she announced that she was considering her own mask legislation. In an interview with CNN, Hochul indicated that such an effort to limit the use of face coverings would come in response to masked individuals “threatening or intimidating” Jewish people.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share