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Peptides Thrive in Venus Clouds, Hinting at Extraterrestrial Life
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In Short: A new study suggests that peptides, the building blocks of proteins, can survive and maintain their stability in the harsh sulfuric acid clouds of Venus, challenging previous assumptions about the planet's inhospitable conditions.
MIT researchers have discovered that peptides can thrive in the clouds of Venus, which are 98% sulfuric acid, a finding that could redefine our understanding of where life might exist in the universe.
The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that peptides can form specific three-dimensional shapes in such an acidic environment, which is crucial for biological processes.
Senior co-author Mei Hong explained, 'If peptides find their way to that cloud layer of concentrated sulfuric acid, they will stay and be stably preserved in that cloud of droplets.
Follow-up research will attempt to recreate DNA's double-strand structure with peptides, further exploring the potential for life in non-Earth-like environments.
This discovery suggests that the search for extraterrestrial life should not be limited to planets with Earth-like conditions, as Venus's clouds provide a more hospitable environment for peptides to form and maintain their stability.
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- Despite longstanding conceptions that Venus would be too deadly for even the hardiest of extremophiles, new evidence suggests a rethinking of life from the ground up may be in order.
- Additionally, the sulfuric acid molecules acted as scaffolds, allowing biologically useful shapes to form that otherwise wouldn’t, such as omega loops, which are found in some naturally occurring proteins on Earth but not typically in peptides.
- See Also NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spotted the Moon’s Shadow on Earth During Recent 2024 Eclipse “What hadn’t been known is that peptides can survive so well and have specific three-dimensional shapes in an acidic environment,” Hong explained.
- Follow-up work will take these ideas even further, synthesizing a DNA alternative called PNA, made from peptides.
- Based on recent evidence, it may be time to cast a wider net in the search for extraterrestrial life and look at planets that bear little resemblance to Earth.
- Instead of being composed primarily of water, the clouds on Venus are 98% sulfuric acid, which is strong enough to dissolve metals and would kill any known life on Earth.
- Through this, the researchers successfully observed three peptides successfully forming the necessary folded structures enabling them to remain stable for several weeks under environmental conditions of 98 percent sulfuric acid.
- “Life needs to have specially shaped proteins so that they have a specific target they can latch onto and perform their function,” said Dr. Sara Seager, who is a Professor of Planetary Science at MIT and a co-author on the study.
Sources
- Thedebrief link