[ad_1]
This unusual discovery hints at the potential for habitable worlds beyond our own.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope found the key ingredients needed to make a margarita cocktail in space. This unusual discovery hints at the potential for habitable worlds beyond our own.
POT says the chemical ingredients found around protostars known as IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385 are linked to habitable planets and familiar parts of life on Earth: daisies, vinegar and ant bites.
The team of astronomers used Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to identify a variety of icy compounds made up of complex organic molecules such as ethanol (alcohol) and probably acetic acid (an ingredient in vinegar). This work builds on Webb’s earlier detections of various ices in a cold, dark molecular cloud.
NASA noted that these planets are not yet forming around those stars; These and other molecules detected there by Webb represent key ingredients for creating potentially habitable worlds.
“All of these molecules can form part of comets and asteroids and, eventually, new planetary systems when icy material is transported into the interior of the planet-forming disk as the protostellar system evolves,” said Ewine van Dishoeck of the University from Leiden, one of the study coordinators. scientific program, she said in a NASA publication.
The scientific team also detected simpler molecules, including formic acid (which causes the burning sensation of an ant bite), methane, formaldehyde and sulfur dioxide. Research suggests that sulfur-containing compounds, such as sulfur dioxide, played an important role in driving metabolic reactions on the early Earth.
“We hope to follow this astrochemical trail step by step with more data from Webb in the coming years,” Dishoeck said.
These observations were made for the JOYS+ (James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars) program.