Sunday, September 16, 2012

Don't Tell Mayor Bloomberg...

...But there's a youngster nearby who is pretty much swimming in sugar, despite the Mayor's busybody ban on soda glasses larger than sixteen ounces. Reports that he chose that size so he wouldn't need more than one glass for his brain are, as yet, unconfirmed.

Of course, the youngster is question is the star IRAS 16293-2422, some 400 light years away, And the "sugar" in question is actually molecular clouds of glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar that has been found orbiting this young star.

The glycolaldehyde molecules are being drawn inward toward IRAS 16293-2422 and whatever planets may be closer insystem. Should there be a small rocky planet with significant liquids on its surface, those sugars could eventually be the foundation of life on it, since glycolaldehyde is one of the molecules that makes up RNA, a chemical compound essential to life. It's possible that, some billions of years from now, beings on that planet could study the universe around them and wonder, like we do, if there is anyone else out there.

I'm imagining they'll be a lot smarter than Mayor Bloomberg.

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