2024-03-16 08:27:00
(CNN) — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected common chemical ingredients found in vinegar, ant bites and even daisies around two young stars, NASA reported.
The complex organic molecules they observed using the space observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument included acetic acid, a component of vinegar, and ethanol, also known as alcohol.
The team also found single molecules of formic acid, which causes the burning sensation associated with ant bites, as well as sulfur dioxide, methane and formaldehyde. Scientists think that sulfur compounds like sulfur dioxide might have played a key role on the early Earth that eventually paved the way for life to form.
The newly detected molecules were spotted as icy compounds around IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385, which are two protostars, or stars so young that they have not yet formed planets. The Stars form from rotating clouds of gas and dustand the material left over from star formation gives rise to planets.
The protostar IRAS 23385 is estimated to be 15,981 light years from Earth in the Milky Way, according to previous research.
The new observation intrigues astronomers because the molecules detected around stars might be crucial ingredients for potentially habitable worlds, and those ingredients might be incorporated into planets that will likely eventually form around stars.
Space is full of heavy metals and chemical elements and compounds that have been created and released by stellar explosions over time. In turn, the chemical elements are incorporated into clouds that form the next generation of stars.
On Earth, the right combination of elements allowed life to form, and as famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “We are made of star stuff.” But astronomers have long questioned how common the elements necessary for life are throughout the cosmos.
The search for complex molecules in space
Previously, scientists using the Webb discovered types of ice made of different elements in a cold, dark molecular cloud, an interstellar clump of gas and dust where hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules can form. Dense clumps within these clouds can collapse to form protostars.
Detecting complex organic molecules in space is helping astronomers determine the origins of the molecules, as well as those of other larger cosmic molecules.
Scientists believe that complex organic molecules are created by ice sublimation in space, or the process when a solid changes to a gas without first becoming a liquid, and Webb’s new detection provides evidence for that theory.
“This finding contributes to one of the long-standing questions in astrochemistry,” said Will Rocha, team leader of the James Webb Young Protostar Observations Program and a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands, in a statement. . “What is the origin of complex organic molecules, or COM, in space? Are they made in the gas phase or in ices? The detection of COM in ices suggests that solid-phase chemical reactions on the grain surfaces of cold dust can build complex types of molecules.
A study detailing new findings of protostars has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A look at the early solar system
Understanding the shape that complex organic molecules take can help astronomers better understand the ways in which molecules are incorporated into planets. Complex organic molecules trapped in cold ices can eventually become part of comets or asteroids, which collide with planets and essentially deliver ingredients that might sustain life.
Chemicals found around protostars may reflect the early history of our solar system, allowing astronomers to observe what was present when the sun and the planets orbiting it, including Earth, were forming.
“All of these molecules can become part of comets and asteroids and eventually new planetary systems when icy material is transported into the planet-forming disk as the protostellar system evolves,” said study co-author Ewine van Dishoeck, professor of molecular astrophysics at Leiden University, said in a statement. “We hope to follow this astrochemical trail step by step with more data from Webb in the coming years.”
The team has dedicated the results of their research to study co-author Harold Linnartz, who died unexpectedly in December shortly following the paper was accepted for publication.
Linnartz, who led the Leiden Astrophysics Laboratory and coordinated the measurements used in the study, was a “world leader in laboratory studies of gaseous and icy molecules in interstellar space,” according to a statement from Leiden University.
He was reportedly delighted with the data Webb was able to capture and what the findings might mean for astrochemical research.
“Harold was particularly happy that in the COM assignments laboratory work might play an important role, as it has been a long road to get here,” said van Dishoeck.
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