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abstract
Glycine (NH$_{2}$CH$_{2}$COOH) is the smallest biologically important amino acid. The detection of interstellar glycine would help us better understand solar system exobiology and prebiotic chemical processes on the early Earth. Current chemical models suggest that grain chemistry is responsible for the formation of complex molecules. Our earlier work has shown that the northern continuum source in the Sgr B2 massive star forming region, Sgr B2(N), is uniquely rich in complex molecules, and therefore a promising place to search for glycine. We used the BIMA millimeter array to observe several glycine transitions toward Sgr B2. Preliminary results from our high resolution array data show emission lines from Sgr B2(N) which match rest frequencies of glycine. Our results will be discussed.
We acknowledge partial support from the Laboratory for Astronomical Imaging at the University of Illinois, NSF AST 90-24603, and NASA NAGW-2299.
