Complex organic molecules found 450 light-years away

Newer instruments have ensured that our picture of the universe outside our solar system is more detailed. For the first time, complex organic molecules have now been detected at a distance of 450 light-years.

Pyrenees mountains in the clouds

A research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US has discovered large carbon-containing particles in a distant interstellar cloud of gas and dust find out. This may be of great importance for understanding the origins of life in the universe, because it provides evidence that complex organic molecules existed before the formation of our solar system and remained intact until the formation of the Earth.

The molecule the researchers discovered is pyrene, which is called a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). Pyrene consists of rings of carbon atoms and is of great importance in chemical processes that could lead to the emergence of life. According to the theory, PAHs are widespread in interstellar matter and play a central role in assumptions about the evolution of carbon-based life forms.

However, until now it has been difficult to directly detect PAHs in interstellar matter. So the researchers used an indirect method: they discovered the molecule 1-cyanopyrene, which acts as a “tracer” for pyrene. Unlike pyrene, 1-cyanopyrene can be detected using radio telescopes because it acts as a small radio emitter. Using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, scientists were able to deduce the presence of pyrene in the Taurus molecular cloud, located about 450 light-years from Earth.

The building blocks of life

This discovery indicates the presence of pyrene and other complex molecules in the cold, dark clouds from which stars and solar systems formed. What's particularly interesting is that not only can pyrene survive in these harsh environments, but it has also been detected in samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This indicates that such molecules were already present in our solar system before the Earth formed.

These findings are another piece of the puzzle in the theory that the building blocks of life come from space. Hence, it is possible that complex organic molecules made an important contribution to the emergence of life on early Earth when conditions became favorable for chemical processes.

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