Source: [astrobio.net]

Dust particles can be found everywhere in space, but what can dust tell us about life’s potential in the Universe? By modeling how light scatters when it interacts with dust particles, researchers supported by the Exobiology & Evolutionary Biology are looking at ways of determining whether or not the dust contains molecules that could be important in the origins of life.

The study centers around identifying homochiral molecules based on the way in which they scatter light. Chirality refers to molecules that are identical, but can exist in forms that are mirror-images of one another. It’s similar to a person’s left and right hands. They are both hands and are made up of the same five fingers, but the arrangement of the fingers defines each hand as either left or right.

Homochirality means that even though both right- and left-hand forms are possible, only one is found in the environment. This is often the case for some molecules used to build life on Earth.

If homochiral molecules can be identified based on how they scatter light, it could tell astronomers whether or not dusty regions of space are of interest to astrobiologists.

The study was published in the journal Planetary and Space Science under lead author Ludmilla Kolokolova.