Star formation where astronomers detected methyl isocyanate (inset: drawing of molecule)ESO/DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY 2/L. CALCADAScientists have detected, in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 400 light-years away, an organic molecule similar to protein building blocks. Methyl isocyanate is present in dust surrounding baby stars that will one day resemble our own Sun, supporting the idea that life’s raw ingredients were spawned from the formation of the solar system.
Martín-Doménech from the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to look for telltale signatures of the molecule in radio spectra. They reported their results in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“Either life originated completely on the surface of the Earth, or some building blocks were formed in the solar nebula prior to the formation of the Earth and delivered by comets to our planet, where biochemical reactions continued leading to the formation of the first living organisms,” Martín-Doménech tells WIRED. “The detection of this molecule points toward the latter theory.”
Another group of astronomers, led by Niels Ligterink at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and Audrey Coutens at University College ...
