For the first time, the ALMA Microwave Observatory discovered complex organic molecules inside the embryo of a star, which indicates the possibility of their formation and accumulation in future "building materials" of the planets, according to an article published in the journal MNRAS.
“This star system continues to be an inexhaustible storehouse of new discoveries. Sugar molecules were recently discovered here, and now we have found methyl isocyanate. These molecules are directly involved on earth in the synthesis of proteins and amino acids, which we know are the basis of life on earth,”said Audrey Coutens of University College London, UK.
Kutens and her colleagues made this discovery by observing one of the closest and most unusual "embryos" of stars - the triple system IRAS 16293-2422, located just 446 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. Today it is a large cloud of gas containing a pair of two embryos of stars orbiting each other at a short distance, and a third future star circling around them at a distance of 10 times farther than Pluto is distant from the Sun.
This cloud of gas and the embryos of stars are still too cold to be examined with optical telescopes, and therefore scientists use powerful microwave radio telescopes in order to see the embers of the forming stars and the gas and dust surrounding them. The first "cosmic" sugar was found relatively recently in this disk of gas and dust, showing that such building blocks of life can exist in the vicinity of newborn stars, as well as compounds of methane and formic acid.
Kutens and her colleagues managed to find other organic molecules in this cloud, including the potential "progenitor" of amino acids and other complex "building blocks of life", using the ALMA microwave telescope in Chile, the most powerful instrument of its kind on Earth.
ALMA, as scientists explain, can "see" even the coldest and rare molecules inside the gas clusters, which allowed them to find out where organic matter lives inside the gas-dust "cocoon" IRAS 16293-2422 and how much of it is contained.
As these measurements showed, complex organic molecules, including methyl isocyanate, are present in large quantities not only in the cold part of the protoplanetary disk IRAS 16293–2422, where the rays of the emerging star do not penetrate, but also in its “warm” half. This is important for the reason that the heat and light of the forming stars should quickly destroy organic matter and erase all its traces, if new molecules of complex compounds are not constantly formed and do not replenish the reserves of organic matter.
In addition, scientists have recorded traces of the formation of these molecules in rather cold parts of the disk on the surface of ice grains from molecules of methane and hydrocyanic acid, which suggests that they should be present in virtually every newborn star, since both methane and hydrocyanic acid are found in space in large numbers. On the other hand, the large amounts of methyl isocyanate in the “cocoon” of IRAS 16293–2422 indicate that it arises in other ways, the essence of which remains a mystery to planetary scientists.
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“We are especially pleased with this discovery for the reason that this star is very similar in mass and characteristics to the young Sun, and very favorable conditions have developed around it for the birth of planets like Earth. Having opened the blanks of the “building blocks of life”, we took another step towards solving the mystery of the appearance of life on our planet,”the scientists conclude.
