News in Brief Astronomy

Molecular handedness found in space

Propylene oxide’s two mirror-image forms could be clue to biological chirality

gas cloud with molecular structure

MOLECULE CLUE  A gas cloud (Sagittarius B2) near the center of the galaxy (Sagittarius A*) is loaded with propylene oxide, a molecule that comes in mirror-image configurations.

B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF from data provided by N.E. Kassim, Naval Research Laboratory, Sloan Digital Sky Survey

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

SAN DIEGO — A clue about why life on Earth chooses only one mirror-image form of certain molecules might lie in a gas cloud tens of thousands of light-years away.