Molecule Similar to Peptides Detected in Protostars

The dust surrounding emerging, Sun-like stars contains methyl isocyanate, an organic molecule.

kerry grens
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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 ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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