“I definitely wouldn’t eat that ice cream.”
Is there life on Mars, is there life on Mars? Is this unknown to science? But now scientists believe that life may have originated on a completely different red world in the shape of a “snowman.” This world is rich in sugars that are similar to those found in human cells on Earth.
Experts in France and the US say a snowman-shaped body called Arrokoth, located on the outskirts of our solar system beyond Pluto, is covered in sugars. According to the Daily Mail, these include glucose and ribose — sugars that are the «basic building blocks» of RNA, the molecule found in human cells and most life on Earth.
Arrokoth, 4 billion miles from the sun, is «too cold to support life as we know it», according to NASA.
But new evidence suggests that smaller comets may have carried the sugar molecules needed for life from Arrokoth to the early Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.
A team of experts, led by Dr. Cornelia Meinert from the CNRS-University of the Côte d'Azur in France, believes that methanol ice turns into sugar on Arrokoth under the influence of cosmic rays, giving it a red color.
Arrokoth is not a planet, but «planetesimal», which means that it is a very early remnant of the solar system, left after the formation of the planets, writes the Daily Mail. It consists of two bodies 13 and nine miles in diameter that likely orbited each other before coming together billions of years ago.
Orbiting in the distant Kuiper Belt at a distance of 3.93 billion miles (6.33 billion km) from Earth, it is the most distant object ever visited by spacecraft.
In 2019, the New spacecraft Horizons flew over Arrokoth, revealing its unusual shape and stunning red hue.
But why Arrokoth, which means «sky» in the Powhatan or Algonquian Native American language, became so red was a mystery.
< p>The surface of arrocotta is coated with a layer of frozen methanol, the same alcohol that makes people blind, as well as organic compounds responsible for its red color.
One theory suggested that at very low temperatures methanol could turn into these red compounds under the influence of «galactic cosmic rays» — high-energy particles that bombard the solar system.
To test this theory, the researchers cooled samples of frozen methanol to -233 °C using electrons to simulate the impact of galactic cosmic rays on Arrokoth over 1.8 billion years.
Scientists not only found that the result This process produces a red color extremely similar to Arrokoth, but also produces a «complex array» of «biologically significant» sugars.
However, Dr Meinert told MailOnline that this does not mean Arrokoth would become a gourmet treat .
Dr. Meinert says, «We detected glucose and galactose in the samples, which are known to cause a sweet taste. Given the low content of individual sugars and especially other organic molecules that are considered toxic in this ice, I would definitely not eat this ice cream.» .
Gastronomic significance aside, this discovery could be vital to understanding how life may have originated in the solar system.
The sugars found on Arrokoth are the same simple organic compounds that make up RNA, a DNA-like molecule found in all living cells.
While they are organic compounds, that doesn't mean Arrokoth or rocks like it could be home to any form of life, the Daily Mail notes.
Instead, the sugars on Arrokoth may have been carried by comets into the inner solar system billions of years ago, serving as one of many ingredients needed to form life.
Researchers suggest that a «sugar world» like Arrokoth may have been torn from the Kuiper belt and collided with our planet billions of years ago.
However, Dr Meinert explains: «The simple building blocks of life do not automatically lead to the formation living cells. Evolution is necessary to assemble simple molecules into functional polymers.»
Although research suggests that the planetesimal may contain ancient ice at its core, it is too cold to form liquid water.
Arrokoth and other planetesimals left over from the formation of planets 4.5 billion years ago have been discovered in the Kuiper belt, where comets are found.
In their paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers write that it could «deliver biologically important molecules such as carbohydrates to the early Earth.»
Research has even shown that comets that are slowed by the gravity of other planets can keep biological molecules intact as they collide with Earth.
This could mean that the origin of life as we know it may have started with a red rock in the icy reaches of space.
Initially, it was believed that Arrakoth was two separate objects, says the Daily Mail. The Kuiper belt object was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. Officially known as 2014 MU69, it was nicknamed Ultima Thule through an online vote. In classical and medieval literature, Thule was the most remote and northern location outside the known world. In November 2019, it was officially renamed Arrakoth to avoid unwanted connections with the Nazi regime.
Arrokoth means «sky» in Powhatan and Algonquian. The Nazi Party in Germany used the expression «Ultima Thule» to refer to the mythical homeland of the Aryan people, writes the Daily Mail.
When New Horizons first saw the rocky ice ball in August, it was just a dot. NASA's New Horizons flew past the object on January 1, 2019, at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth. In 2019, ongoing studies of data sent back from New Horizons revealed that there were not two objects, but one snowman-like object. In 2019, an ongoing study of data sent from New Horizons revealed that they were not two objects, but one related element. High-resolution images showed that the object resembled a snowman. It is currently the most distant, most primitive, and most pristine object ever explored by spacecraft.
It is currently known to be about the size of Seattle — 22 miles long and 12 miles wide. It also boasts a uniform reddish surface, smooth and wavy, with several craters. It is now officially classified as a planetesimal object, which was one of the original building blocks of the Solar System.