Scientists at St Andrews University have discovered evidence of possible extraterrestrial life in faraway dust.
According to research by Dr Craig Stark and colleagues at the university’s school of physics and astronomy, dust grains found in faraway planets could harbour the precursors to life.
The academics found prebiotic molecules, which are involved in the origin of life, can form in dust clouds found in the atmospheres of exoplanets found outside our solar system.
Exoplanets can either orbit a star other than our own sun, or stars too low in mass to radiate energy, called brown dwarfs.
Dr Stark said: “The atmospheres around exoplanets and brown dwarves form exotic clouds that, instead of being composed of water droplets, are made of dust particles made of minerals.”
The Life Electricity Atmosphere Planets group, led by the university’s Dr Christiane Helling, has shown that, just like on Earth, these clouds can become charged and lightning can occur, electrifying the atmosphere and creating special gases which contain charged particles.
Dr Stark added: “These charged gases are called plasmas, like those found in fluorescent lights and plasma televisions.
“The dust can find itself immersed in the charged gases and the charged particles stick to the dust, making the dust charged.
“The charged dust attracts on to its surface other charges from the surrounding plasma, helping grow molecules on the dust surface.”
Dr Stark demonstrated it is these environments which could see the formation of prebiotic molecules and presented the paper to the Royal Astronomical Society yesterday.