A new study has revealed that a distant object in the Kuiper Belt contains significant amounts of organic molecules, including complex sugars. Known as Arrokoth, it is the most distant Solar System object ever visited by a spacecraft and is reddish in colour. Scientists in the US and France say that its unusual hue may be due to the presence of glucose and other forms of sugar on its surface.
In 2019, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passed by Arrokoth which circles the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Though they discovered that the surface of the planetoid was pinkish-red, they were not able to explain why.
Researchers may have the answer now. After analysing data from the flyby, they found that Arrokoth, nickname ''sugar world'', has a distinctive reddish colour, which is linked to the presence of complex organic molecules, Space.com reported. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
''The Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Arrokoth, the farthest object in the Solar System ever visited by a spacecraft, possesses a distinctive reddish surface and is characterized by pronounced spectroscopic features associated with methanol,'' the study noted.
The research team also simulated the planetoid on a computer and exposed it to the conditions it has likely endured over the past 1.8 billion years. They found that such a bombardment could result in the formation of several sugar-type compounds, which, when viewed from space, would appear pinkish or red, depending on the angle of sunlight reflection.
''Here, we have evidence that methanol ices exposed to galactic cosmic rays can replicate the colours of Arrokoth. Organics formed indicate that Arrokoth is rich in sugars including biologically significant ribose and glucose, while aromatic hydrocarbons are essential in producing the ultrared colour slopes,'' the study said.
The research team also noted that some of the sugars that developed were similar to those found in RNA here on Earth, suggesting the possibility of life. However, NASA said that Arrokoth, which is 4 billion miles away from the sun, is ''too cold to support life as we know it.''
Arrokoth was formerly called 2014 MU69 and Ultima Thule, as it has been the most distant object ever found by a space probe the New Horizons.
