Peptide bonds form in icy space under radiation, hinting at a cold prebiotic route
Researchers cooled glycine to cryogenic temperatures and irradiated it with proton-like cosmic rays, producing glycylglycine and other organics in ice without liquid water. The result shows a plausible non-aqueous, radiation-driven path to peptide bonds in interstellar ice, suggesting prebiotic chemistry could begin before stars form. It is a laboratory analogue, not proof of life or interstellar peptides seeding Earth, and raises questions about how common and efficient this chemistry is in space.