In a new study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysicsresearchers announce that they have spotted an alcohol molecule for the very first time… near the center of our Milky Way.
Alcohol abuse is dangerous for health.
As surprising as it may seem, researchers have just detected alcohol for the very first time… in the heart of our galaxy.
More precisely, it is a molecule of isopropyl alcoholalso known asisopropanol and widely used on Earth as a stripper, degreaser and solvent in industry or as an additive for gasoline, which was spotted in a “delivery room” of stars, the Sagittarius B2 massive star-forming regionlocated near the center of our Milky Way.
Alcohol at the center of the Milky Way
As the authors of this unprecedented discovery explain in a study published on June 28, 2022 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysicsastronomers have been studying in depth the chemical composition of this molecular cloud, located near the black hole Sgr A* of our galaxy, for fifteen years now, in order to understand how organic molecules are formed in the interstellar medium, in particular in regions where new stars are born.
It is by taking advantage of the high angular resolution and sensitivity of l’Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Arraya telescope located in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and more simply known asALMAthat researchers have been able to analyze in detail the chemical composition of matter involved in the mechanism of star formation, and are now seeking to establish links with the chemical composition of bodies in the solar system such as comets.
Since 2014, ALMA’s observations have thus led to theidentification of three new organic molecules (isopropyl cyanide, N-methylformamide, urea), to which is therefore added the molecule of propanol (C3H7OH) recently detected.
Already 277 molecules spotted in the interstellar medium
More broadly, to date, there are no less than 277 molecules that have been identified through the interstellar medium, and the list keeps growing. The latest, propanol, is also the largest of this class of molecules detected in space.
Propanol (C3H7OH) is an alcohol, which exists in the form of two isomers: propan-1-ol and the propan-2-ol (also called isopropanol). However, these are these two forms of molecules that have been identified by the team of Arnaud Belloche, astronomer at the Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Bonn and lead author of the study.
And this is an event in more ways than one, because it is the first time that isopropanol has been detected in the interstellar medium, but also the first time that normal propanol has been detected in a region of formation of stars.
