https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/nasa-mystery-of-lifes-handedness-deepens/ NASA Logo * Explore Search [ ] NASA Logo * News & Events News & Events + All NASA News + Video Series on NASA+ + Podcasts + Blogs + Newsletters + Social Media + Media Resources + Events + Upcoming Launches & Landings + Virtual Guest Program * Multimedia Multimedia + NASA+ + Images + NASA Live + NASA Apps + Podcasts + Image of the Day + e-Books + Sounds and Ringtones + Interactives + STEM Multimedia * NASA+ Search [ ] Suggested Searches * Climate Change * Artemis * Expedition 64 * Mars perseverance * SpaceX Crew-2 * International Space Station * View All Topics A-Z * Home * Missions * Humans in Space * Earth & Climate * The Solar System * The Universe * Science * Aeronautics * Technology * Learning Resources * About NASA * Espanol ----------------------------------------------------------------- * News & Events * Multimedia * NASA+ Featured Gediz Vallis channel 5 min read NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a Last Look at Mysterious Sulfur article6 days ago [18-christensen-a-sc24-dyamondpointcloud-3-29-2023a-dyamond-co2-anim-globe] 2 min read Hollywood Techniques Help NASA Visualize Supercomputing Data article6 days ago What's Up: November 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA 5 min read What's Up: November 2024 Skywatching Tips from NASA article3 weeks ago Back --------------------------------------------------------------------- Missions * Search All NASA Missions * A to Z List of Missions * Upcoming Launches and Landings * Spaceships and Rockets * Communicating with Missions * Artemis * James Webb Space Telescope * Hubble Space Telescope * International Space Station * OSIRIS-Rex Humans in Space * Why Go to Space * Astronauts * Commercial Space * Destinations * Spaceships and Rockets * Living in Space Earth & Climate * Explore Earth Science * Climate Change * Earth, Our Planet * Earth Science in Action * Earth Multimedia * Earth Data * Earth Science Researchers The Solar System * The Sun * Mercury * Venus * Earth * The Moon * Mars * Jupiter * Saturn * Uranus * Neptune * Pluto & Dwarf Planets * Asteroids, Comets & Meteors * The Kuiper Belt * The Oort Cloud * Skywatching The Universe * Exoplanets * The Search for Life in the Universe * Stars * Galaxies * Black Holes * The Big Bang * Dark Energy & Dark Matter Science * Earth Science * Planetary Science * Astrophysics & Space Science * The Sun & Heliophysics * Biological & Physical Sciences * Lunar Science * Citizen Science * Astromaterials * Aeronautics Research * Human Space Travel Research Aeronautics * Science in the Air * NASA Aircraft * Flight Innovation * Supersonic Flight * Air Traffic Solutions * Green Aviation Tech * Drones & You Technology * Technology Transfer & Spinoffs * Space Travel Technology * Technology Living in Space * Manufacturing and Materials * Robotics * Science Instruments * Computing Learning Resources * For Kids and Students * For Educators * For Colleges and Universities * For Professionals * Science for Everyone * Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, or Speakers * STEM Engagement at NASA About NASA * NASA's Impacts * Centers and Facilities * Directorates * Organizations * People of NASA * Careers * Internships * Our History * Doing Business with NASA * Get Involved * Contact NASA en Espanol * Ciencia * Aeronautica * Ciencias Terrestres * Sistema Solar * Universo News & Events * All NASA News * Video Series on NASA+ * Podcasts * Blogs * Newsletters * Social Media * Media Resources * Events * Upcoming Launches & Landings * Virtual Guest Program Multimedia * NASA+ * Images * NASA Live * NASA Apps * Podcasts * Image of the Day * e-Books * Sounds and Ringtones * Interactives * STEM Multimedia Featured Gediz Vallis channel 5 min read NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a Last Look at Mysterious Sulfur article 6 days ago Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled Galaxies 2 min read Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled Galaxies article 1 week ago NASA's EMIT collected this hyperspectral image of the Amazon River in northern Brazil 5 min read NASA's EMIT Will Explore Diverse Science Questions on Extended Mission article 1 week ago Highlights A close-up of a conduction chamber for testing the heat conduction properties of materials and equipment to be used in Artemis missions. 4 min read NASA Marshall Thermal Engineering Lab Provides Key Insight to Human Landing System article 2 days ago NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague pedals on the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS), an exercise cycle located aboard the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module. CEVIS provides aerobic and cardiovascular conditioning through recumbent (leaning back position) or upright cycling activities. 8 min read Preguntas frecuentes: La verdadera historia del cuidado de la salud de los astronautas en el espacio article 3 days ago NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague pedals on the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS), an exercise cycle located aboard the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module. CEVIS provides aerobic and cardiovascular conditioning through recumbent (leaning back position) or upright cycling activities. 6 min read FAQ: The Real Story About Astronaut Health Care in Space article 3 days ago Highlights Amendment 70: New Opportunity: A.62 FarmFlux Science Team 2 min read Amendment 70: New Opportunity: A.62 FarmFlux Science Team article 3 days ago 5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun 5 min read 5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun article 4 days ago NASA's Brad Doorn Brings Farm Belt Wisdom to Space-Age Agriculture 14 min read NASA's Brad Doorn Brings Farm Belt Wisdom to Space-Age Agriculture article 4 days ago Highlights An image from a 3D simulation showing the evolution of turbulent flows in the upper layers of the Sun. The more saturated and bright reds represent the most vigorous upward or downward twisting motions. Clear areas represent areas where there is only relatively slow up-flows, with very little twisting. 3 min read Ready, Set, Action! Our Sun is the Star in Dazzling Simulation article 3 days ago 5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun 5 min read 5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun article 4 days ago A prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons 5 min read NASA Ocean World Explorers Have to Swim Before They Can Fly article 4 days ago Featured Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal 2 min read Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal article 2 days ago NASA's Hubble Finds Sizzling Details About Young Star FU Orionis 5 min read NASA's Hubble Finds Sizzling Details About Young Star FU Orionis article 3 days ago The guitar shape in the "Guitar Nebula" comes from bubbles blown by particles ejected from the pulsar through a steady wind as it moves through space. Images from Chandra taken in 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2021 have been combined with a single image in optical light from Palomar. X-rays from Chandra show a filament of energetic matter and antimatter particles, about two light-years long, blasting away from the pulsar (seen as the bright white dot). The movie shows how this filament has changed over two decades. An inset shows a closeup of the "guitar head" from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope also changing over time from 1994-2021. 5 min read NASA's Chandra, Hubble Tune Into 'Flame-Throwing' Guitar Nebula article 4 days ago Highlights Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal 2 min read Hubble Captures an Edge-On Spiral with Curve Appeal article 2 days ago An image from a 3D simulation showing the evolution of turbulent flows in the upper layers of the Sun. The more saturated and bright reds represent the most vigorous upward or downward twisting motions. Clear areas represent areas where there is only relatively slow up-flows, with very little twisting. 3 min read Ready, Set, Action! Our Sun is the Star in Dazzling Simulation article 3 days ago A diagram of the left- and right-hand versions of an amino acid. 4 min read NASA: Mystery of Life's Handedness Deepens article 3 days ago Highlights A woman wearing a black polo shirt with the NASA insignia, dark gray pants, and white shoes stands inside an aircraft hangar in front of a scaled aircraft model. The words "SUSAN Electrofan" and "PAX 180" are printed on a graphic along with fuselage, with a large NASA insignia in the center of the plane. The rear of the aircraft model, along with the wings and tail, are taken apart to display the inner components that make up its electrified propulsion system. 5 min read NASA Engineer Carries Indigenous Roots into New Aviation Era article 5 days ago A white building surrounded by external equipment in front of a blue sky with clouds. 2 min read NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed (NEAT) article 6 days ago A blue circle with white type displaying the NASA acronym encircled by a white swoosh and a red arrow. 1 min read Dynamic Spin Rig Publications article 1 week ago Highlights Illustration of the BioSentinel spacecraft, flying past the Moon with the CubeSat's solar arrays fully deployed, facing the Sun. 8 min read What is BioSentinel? article 4 days ago A prototype of a robot designed to explore subsurface oceans of icy moons 5 min read NASA Ocean World Explorers Have to Swim Before They Can Fly article 4 days ago [mars-moons-simulations] 5 min read Making Mars' Moons: Supercomputers Offer 'Disruptive' New Explanation article 4 days ago Featured Students at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory pose for photos around the laboratory wearing their eclipse glasses. 2 min read Why NASA Is a Great Place to Launch Your Career article 2 days ago Northwestern University team members pose with lunar inflatable prototypes from their METALS project in NASA's 2024 BIG Idea Challenge. 3 min read Northwestern University Takes Top Honors in BIG Idea Lunar Inflatables Challenge article 5 days ago A woman wearing a black polo shirt with the NASA insignia, dark gray pants, and white shoes stands inside an aircraft hangar in front of a scaled aircraft model. The words "SUSAN Electrofan" and "PAX 180" are printed on a graphic along with fuselage, with a large NASA insignia in the center of the plane. The rear of the aircraft model, along with the wings and tail, are taken apart to display the inner components that make up its electrified propulsion system. 5 min read NASA Engineer Carries Indigenous Roots into New Aviation Era article 5 days ago Featured Northwestern University team members pose with lunar inflatable prototypes from their METALS project in NASA's 2024 BIG Idea Challenge. 3 min read Northwestern University Takes Top Honors in BIG Idea Lunar Inflatables Challenge article 5 days ago [18-christensen-a-sc24-dyamondpointcloud-3-29-2023a-dyamond-co2-anim-globe] 2 min read Hollywood Techniques Help NASA Visualize Supercomputing Data article 6 days ago Robert "Bobby" L. 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In the background, there are aviation posters located on the wall and another subscale model on display that is yellow and red. 4 min read Destacado de la NASA: Felipe Valdez, un ingeniero inspirador article 1 month ago 4 min read NASA: Mystery of Life's Handedness Deepens The headshot image of William Steigerwald William Steigerwald Nov 21, 2024 Article * * * * The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA -- a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged -- can favor making the building blocks of proteins in either the left-hand or the right-hand orientation. Resolving this mystery could provide clues to the origin of life. The findings appear in research recently published in Nature Communications. Proteins are the workhorse molecules of life, used in everything from structures like hair to enzymes (catalysts that speed up or regulate chemical reactions). Just as the 26 letters of the alphabet are arranged in limitless combinations to make words, life uses 20 different amino acid building blocks in a huge variety of arrangements to make millions of different proteins. Some amino acid molecules can be built in two ways, such that mirror-image versions exist, like your hands, and life uses the left-handed variety of these amino acids. Although life based on right-handed amino acids would presumably work fine, the two mirror images are rarely mixed in biology, a characteristic of life called homochirality. It is a mystery to scientists why life chose the left-handed variety over the right-handed one. A diagram of the left- and right-hand versions of an amino acid. A diagram of left-handed and right-handed versions of the amino acid isovaline, found in the Murchison meteorite. NASA DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that holds the instructions for building and running a living organism. However, DNA is complex and specialized; it "subcontracts" the work of reading the instructions to RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules and building proteins to ribosome molecules. DNA's specialization and complexity lead scientists to think that something simpler should have preceded it billions of years ago during the early evolution of life. A leading candidate for this is RNA, which can both store genetic information and build proteins. The hypothesis that RNA may have preceded DNA is called the "RNA world" hypothesis. If the RNA world proposition is correct, then perhaps something about RNA caused it to favor building left-handed proteins over right-handed ones. However, the new work did not support this idea, deepening the mystery of why life went with left-handed proteins. The experiment tested RNA molecules that act like enzymes to build proteins, called ribozymes. "The experiment demonstrated that ribozymes can favor either left- or right-handed amino acids, indicating that RNA worlds, in general, would not necessarily have a strong bias for the form of amino acids we observe in biology now," said Irene Chen, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Samueli School of Engineering, corresponding author of the Nature Communications paper. In the experiment, the researchers simulated what could have been early-Earth conditions of the RNA world. They incubated a solution containing ribozymes and amino acid precursors to see the relative percentages of the right-handed and left-handed amino acid, phenylalanine, that it would help produce. They tested 15 different ribozyme combinations and found that ribozymes can favor either left-handed or right-handed amino acids. This suggested that RNA did not initially have a predisposed chemical bias for one form of amino acids. This lack of preference challenges the notion that early life was predisposed to select left-handed-amino acids, which dominate in modern proteins. "The findings suggest that life's eventual homochirality might not be a result of chemical determinism but could have emerged through later evolutionary pressures," said co-author Alberto Vazquez-Salazar, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar and member of Chen's research group. Earth's prebiotic history lies beyond the oldest part of the fossil record, which has been erased by plate tectonics, the slow churning of Earth's crust. During that time, the planet was likely bombarded by asteroids, which may have delivered some of life's building blocks, such as amino acids. In parallel to chemical experiments, other origin-of-life researchers have been looking at molecular evidence from meteorites and asteroids. "Understanding the chemical properties of life helps us know what to look for in our search for life across the solar system," said co-author Jason Dworkin, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and director of Goddard's Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory. Dworkin is the project scientist on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which extracted samples from the asteroid Bennu and delivered them to Earth last year for further study. "We are analyzing OSIRIS-REx samples for the chirality (handedness) of individual amino acids, and in the future, samples from Mars will also be tested in laboratories for evidence of life including ribozymes and proteins," said Dworkin. The research was supported by grants from NASA, the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Origin of Life, and the National Science Foundation. Vazquez-Salazar acknowledges support through the NASA Postdoctoral Program, which is administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities under contract with NASA. Share * * * * Details Last Updated Nov 21, 2024 Editor William Steigerwald Contact Nancy N. Jones nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms * Astrobiology Explore More [pia19048-e] 2 min read NASA-Funded Study Examines Tidal Effects on Planet and Moon Interiors NASA-supported scientists have developed a method to compute how tides affect the interiors of planets... Article 2 weeks ago [clilpperwa] 2 min read NASA's New Edition of Graphic Novel Features Europa Clipper NASA has released a new edition of Issue 4 of the Astrobiology Graphic History series.... 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