Molecules that are a close precursor to living systems or that are most likely a result of biological activity can tell us whether there could be life on other worlds in our own solar system. Therefore, the capability to accurately identify and quantify such biomarkers, which may be found in the presence of a complex mixture of molecules and their isomers, is crucial for future life detection missions, e.g. to Europa or Titan. However, any complex molecule with a given atomic composition has other isomers, where the same atoms are connected in a different way, and these isomers may not be interpreted as biomarkers. Given this ambiguity of atomic composition, mass spectrometry alone cannot reliably determine whether a given molecule is a marker for possible biological activity, or simply a non-biogenic isomer. Additional information channels are therefore necessary to unambiguously identify biomarkers in planetary missions. Together with mass identifcation, infrared spectroscopy can yield this kind of structural information. In this project, funded through NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we collaborate with JPL scientists, aiming to establish that vibrational spectra of messenger tagged ionic biomarkers (e.g., amino acids, fatty acids, nucleobases, sugars) can serve to unambiguously detect molecular biosignatures. You can read more about this project here (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.4c03552).
We gratefully acknowledge funding from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for this research. _Logo.webp.png){kind=logo}
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