Interstellar clouds

The dusty region of the constellation Orion (a region known as the 'Sword of Orion') is illuminated in this stunning image taken from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Laboratory. This primordial nebula is the largest and closest star-forming region to us, and is located about 1500 light-years away [Courtesy: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech]

The building blocks of life can form in the interstellar clouds

An international team of researchers has shown that glycine, the simplest amino acid and an important building block of life, can be formed in the harsh conditions that exist in space