Life in the universe could be everywhere

[United Press International]

DENVER, May 5 (UPI) -- The chemistry that underlies life on
Earth is abundant throughout the universe, a U.S. astrophysicist
told United Press International.
"If these are made everywhere, perhaps life is everywhere,"
said Emma Bakes, a principal investigator with NASA's Ames Research
Center in California.
"You have the chemical foundation spread throughout the
entire galaxy," she said. "We're not special. I would bet -- if I
had a million dollars -- I would bet that life is widespread across
the universe."
Life's chemistry comprises a group of chemicals known as
nitrogenated aromatics, which cover a large variety of different
compounds.
Based on her own and observations by other scientists, Bakes
said nitrogenated aromatics exist throughout the Milky Way galaxy --
in protoplanetary disks around stars, in bodies in the Kuiper Belt
-- the loose agglomeration of rocks and planetoids running between
the orbits of Neptune and Pluto and beyond -- on comets and in
interstellar space.
"When we get the interstellar medium collapsing down, it
forms a protoplanetary disk around the star," Bakes explained. "We
get a lot of interesting chemistry."