论文标题
SKA作为益生元分子检测器
The SKA as a prebiotic molecule detector
论文作者
论文摘要
生命起源的一种理论提出，在4.1到38亿年前，大量的益生元材料可能已经从外太空到达地球。这表明那些益生元化合物可能起源于星际空间，以后将其掺入小型太阳系体和行星。在星际培养基中，最近发现的益生元分子（例如羟胺和乙醇胺）强烈支持这一假设。但是，某些物种，例如糖，是合成核糖核苷酸和代谢过程的关键，在太空中仍有待发现。平方公里阵列（SKA）的无与伦比的灵敏度比现有仪器能够检测到更复杂，更重的益生元分子。在这一贡献中，我们说明了SKA使用中等观察时间的中等投资来检测三个和四个碳原子的简单糖的潜力。
One of the theories for the origin of life proposes that a significant fraction of prebiotic material could have arrived to Earth from outer space between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago. This suggests that those prebiotic compounds could have originated in interstellar space, to be later on incorporated to small Solar-system bodies and planetesimals. The recent discovery of prebiotic molecules such as hydroxylamine and ethanolamine in the interstellar medium, strongly supports this hypothesis. However, some species such as sugars, key for the synthesis of ribonucleotides and for metabolic processes, remain to be discovered in space. The unmatched sensitivity of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) at centimeter wavelengths will be able to detect even more complex and heavier prebiotic molecules than existing instrumentation. In this contribution, we illustrate the potential of the SKA to detect simple sugars with three and four carbon atoms, using a moderate investment of observing time.
