Organic Chemistry Across the Universe
Extraterrestrial Transformation

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Glycolaldehyde

Glycolaldehyde is thought to have been synthesised on the prebiotic Earth via the Formose reaction(4). This is where molecules of formaldehyde polymerise, or react together to form the larger molecule of Glycolaldehyde.

There is abundant gaseous formaldehyde in dense clouds and also some holding on tight to grains. This could also be the reaction forming Glycolaldehyde in space. The reaction would be catalysed or kick stated by UV radiation from stars. The drawings of ribose and glucose show haw Glycolaldehyde, the pink bonds and atoms, would be incorporated into their structure.



The first sugar and the first triplet isomer. Structural isomers are when molecules have the same empirical formula, For Glycolaldehyde, acetic acid and methyl formate this is C2O2H4. They all contain the same number of atoms of each element. The difference is that they are bonded together in a different sequence for each molecule. This difference in bonding effects their chemical properties. It is like rearranging a number of letters and achieving different words like boy and yob, which have different meanings instead of chemical properties.



Acetic Acid
The detection of the isomer triplet gives us an insight into the chemical reactions in dense clouds. The different abundance of the isomers suggests that some bonds are formed more favourably than others. Methyl formate is the most abundant molecule, which shows a preference for C-O-C bond formation over a C-C-O backbone(4). This could be due to a favoured reaction mechanism for C-O-C bond formation on ice grains. There is no consensus on how complex molecules react in space.

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Start

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Sugar in space

Spectroscopy

Polyatomic Aromatic Hydrocarbon

Simulating Space

Conclusion

References