Infrared spectrography has turned up evidence of some busy organic chemistry taking place in the dust cloud around a young star. These reactions include the creation of amino acids and other building blocks of life.
Vast amounts of water and simple organic molecules that are precursors of the building blocks of life have been found in the dust and rubble swirling around a young star similar to our own sun.
The "spectral fingerprints" seen by the space telescope in the cradle of planet formation suggest abundant water and simple organic molecules are present in the inner disk of dust and gas surrounding the very young star which is thought to be similar to our early sun, a common kind scattered throughout our galaxy.
The new observations reveal the chemical precursors of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, up to three times the distance from the Sun to our own Earth. Astronomers believe that this may offer a unique glimpse of the emergence of life in our own solar system, including the possible seeds of early life.
The question of how the first life forms arose on Earth has not been easy to answer. With this information, it may be that some of the vital chemicals actually formed in space and were carried to the Earth's surface by comets and meteorites. Although a dust cloud is pretty thin, the volume they're talking about here is huge. I wouldn't be surprised if the total mass of amino acids in the cloud being examined outweighs the Earth.
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