This article summarizes findings showing that the Spitzer telescope has observed the spectral signature of tryptophan in an extrasolar system.

This isn’t the first instance of amino acids found extra-terrestrially (previously found on asteroids), but is the first found outside our solar system. Tryptophan has a very strong and very clear spectral signature (it is ubiquitously used in life sciences for example).

doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1535

  • interolivary@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Huh, that’s interesting. I wonder if life elsewhere (assuming we’re not the only planet in the universe with life, which sounds unlikely but not impossible) would tend to use tryptophan, and if there’s other amino acids floating around