An international team of researchers says they've discovered RNA building blocks in a molecular cloud near the Milky Way's center. This discovery may have implications for theories about how life began on Earth, as well as elsewhere in the universe.

With the results of their survey, astrophysicists, astrobiologists, and chemists from the University of California, Davis shed light on the cloud's chemistry. Unlike DNA, ribonucleic acid is single-stranded, not double-stranded, and is found in all living cells.

According to laboratory observations of ribosomes, which are made of RNA, RNA may have preceded DNA. Ancient RNA may have sparked life, but whether or not it was sufficient to jumpstart it is another matter.

Recently, a team of researchers discovered several organic molecules in the cloud that seem to belong to the family of compounds known as nitriles; these molecules may have been important for generating RNA in the early universe.

The team's research was published today in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science.“ Astrobiologists at the National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Madrid have shown that the interstellar medium is capable of forming multiple nitriles,

which are key molecules of the RNA World scenario,” Rivilla says in Frontiers. According to the RNA world hypothesis, RNA with genetic and metabolic activity played a fundamental role in the origin of life.

Astrophysicist Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, also of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology, said, 'There are still key molecules that are hard to detect.' Other molecules responsible for cell formation, such as lipids, are also likely to have been involved in the origin of life on Earth.

Therefore, we should also focus on how the interstellar medium can provide simpler precursors for the development of lipids.'A sedimentary concretion, stromatolites, dating back 3.5 billion years, provide evidence of life on Earth. This is what fossilized life on Mars might look like if it exists.

The Earth needed something to seed life after it formed before stromatolites could be formed. The Late Heavy Bombardment period around 4 billion years ago may have brought all the ingredients needed for life to Earth.

Earth and Moon were bombarded by asteroids and comets during this time, and the evidence is now embedded in the planet's crust. As is suggested for liquid water, it's possible for nitriles like those found by the recent team to have reached our planet from asteroids.

There are also nitriles found in protostars, meteorites, and even at Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Essentially, it's a reminder that we're swimming in a cosmic soup whose ingredients have been floating around for billions of years.

Its chemical composition is similar to that of other star-forming regions in our galaxy, as well as that of solar system objects like comets, said Rivilla. As a result, its study may provide insight into the chemical ingredients that were available in the nebula that gave rise to our solar system.

Neither Rome nor life on Earth was built in a day. RNA, however, was essential to launching life. Even though the origin of RNA is a mystery, the fact that organic molecules can be found throughout the Milky Way indicates that organic molecules exist throughout space.