What is the primary long-term destructive force acting on complex organic molecules in space?
Answer
High-energy radiation like UV light and cosmic rays.
Once biological decomposition driven by microbes is halted by the vacuum, the long-term breakdown shifts to purely physical and chemical mechanisms dictated by the space environment. The most potent of these is high-energy radiation, which is normally filtered out by Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere. This includes intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation originating from the Sun and constant bombardment by high-velocity cosmic rays. This radiation carries enough energy to break the complex molecular bonds within proteins, DNA, and other organic tissues, causing chemical degradation, bleaching of surfaces, and gradual structural weakening over timescales spanning decades to eons.
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