The Emergence Of Prebiotic Chemistry In The Interstellar Medium (ISM)

Contrary to popular belief, the interstellar medium (ISM) is not empty; it is filled with atoms, dust particles, and molecules.

Some of these molecules may have been the very building blocks of life that, delivered to Earth via comets and meteorites, could have given rise to Life itself.

A large-area single-dish telescope with superb sensitivity, field-of-view and multi-band instruments will allow us to explore the limits of chemical complexity in the interstellar medium, across our Galaxy and in external galaxies, determining whether amino acids, sugars, or RNA/DNA nucleobases can form in space.

Prebiotic Molecules in G+0.693 — Sample of prebiotic molecules detected toward the Galactic Center cloud G+0.693 including precursors of ribonucleotides, amino acids, sugars, proto-proteins and proto-lipids (see recent review by Jiménez-Serra 2025). Background image: SARAO, Heywood et al. (2022) / J. C. Muñoz-Mateos. [ Glycolamide,Carbonic Acid, N-Cyanomethanimine, Thionylimide, Z-cyanomethanimine, Propargylimine, cis-N-methylformamide, di-methyl sulfide, Hydroxylamine, Thio-formic acid, Cyanomydil, Ethyl isocyanate, Ethanethiol, Ethyl amine, Vinyl amine, n-Propanol, Z-1,2-ethenediol, ]– astro-ph.EP

Izaskun Jimenez-Serra (1), Giuliana Cosentino (2), Francisco Montenegro-Montes (3), Laura Colzi (1), Victor M. Rivilla (1), Miguel Sanz-Novo (1), Marta Rey-Montejo (1), David San Andres (1), Sergio Martin (4), Shaoshan Zeng (5), Amelie Godard Palluet (1), Miguel A. Requena-Torres (6), German Molpeceres (7), Pamela Klassen (8), Doug Johnston (9), Francesco Fontani (10), Silvia Spezzano (11), Elena Redaelli (12), Juris Kalvans (13), Yuri Aikawa (14), Belen Tercero (15), Pablo de Vicente (15), Serena Viti (16), Emilio J. Cocinero (17), Aran Insausti (17) ((1) Center of Astrobiology (CAB, Spain), (2) Institute de Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM, France), (3) Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain), (4) uropean Southern Observatory (ESO, Chile), (5) RIKEN (Japan), (6) Towson University (USA), (7) Instituto de Fisica Fundamental (IFF, Spain), (8) (UKRI STFC, UK), (9) NRC-Herzberg Institute (Canada), (10) Osservatorio di Arcetri (Italy), (11) Max Plank Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE, Germany), (12) ESO (Germany), (13) Venstpils University (Latvia), (14) University of Tokyo (Japan), (15) Observatorio de Yebes (OAN, Spain), (16) University of Leiden (The Netherlands), (17) UPV/Biofisika Institute (Spain))

Comments: This white paper was submitted to ESO Expanding Horizons in support of AtLAST
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2512.14772 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2512.14772v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.14772
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Submission history
From: Izaskun Jimenez-Serra
[v1] Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:28:04 UTC (720 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14772

Astrobiology, Astrochemistry,