Speaker
Description
Many interstellar molecules are known to have essential functions in terrestrial biochemistry. Observations of prebiotically important COMs thus enable us to better understand the origin of primitive organic materials found in our Solar System. Glycine and pyrimidine, the simplest amino acid and the building blocks of nucleic acid, respectively, were both detected in meteorites and comets. Although the formation of prebiotic molecules in extraterrestrial environments and their contribution to prebiotic chemistry remains unsettled, the connection between interstellar organic chemistry, meteoritic pyrimidines and amino acids, and the emergence of life on the early Earth would be strengthened with the discovery of interstellar glycine and pyrimidine. We will present our recent ALMA results on these two molecules.
