Skip to main content

Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST

The search for life is an incredibly evocative driver of cosmic exploration. It captures our imagination to think that there might be living things out there somewhere else. That’s one reason why we point our eyes—and telescopes—to the stars.

For almost a year, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown astronomers the grandeur and beauty of the infrared universe. But, this infrared-sensitive observatory is also digging into the chemical underpinnings of life in the Universe. Recently researchers announced they used it to detect a carbon compound crucial to the formation of life. JWST found it in the Orion Nebula, in a young star system with a protoplanetary disk.

Romancing the Molecule

What the telescope spotted provides spectral evidence of a molecule called the “methyl cation” (notated as CH3+). While it doesn’t trigger life directly, it aids the formation of complex carbon-based molecules that are the basis of life. Scientists predicted back in the 1970s that this molecule would be found in space. But, it’s tough to detect. Radio telescopes have found many other molecules in protoplanetary disks. However, they can’t always “see” something like the methyl cation due to its unique properties. There is a way to see them in specific infrared spectra, but that light is blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. So, that leaves out ground-based infrared-sensitive facilities.

JWST orbits far from Earth’s influence and has a perfect view into clouds of gas and dust using its near-infrared spectrometer and mid-infrared instruments. It delivered a treasure trove of data about the methyl cation from those instruments to a consortium of scientists. According to science team member Marie-Aline Martine-Drumel of Paris-Saclay University in France, “Our discovery was only made possible because astronomers, modelers, and laboratory spectroscopists joined forces to understand the unique features observed by James Webb.”

What Connects this Molecule to Life?

From an astrochemist’s perspective, carbon compounds in space suggest that the materials for life likely exist throughout the Universe. This particular methyl cation reacts with other molecules and enables other chemical reactions that eventually result in additional complex carbon molecules. That’s why chemists think of it as a cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry. Plus, it played a role in the eventual appearance of life on our own planet.

If this molecule developed elsewhere beyond Earth, it makes the potential development of life in star systems beyond our own much more likely. The fact that JWST was able to spot emission lines from this molecule in a busy protoplanetary disk environment is a crucial find. “This detection not only validates the incredible sensitivity of Webb but also confirms the postulated central importance of CH3+ in interstellar chemistry,” said Martin-Drumel.

The Orion Bar region where JWST observed the methyl cation molecule that underpins the building blocks of life. Courtesy ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), PDRs4ALL ERS Team
The Orion Bar region where JWST observed the methyl cation molecule that underpins the building blocks of life. Courtesy ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), PDRs4ALL ERS Team

The protoplanetary disk where JWST spotted the methyl cation is called d203-506. It’s fairly typical of star-forming regions where hot young stars bombard the birth cloud with UV. Most of the time, that radiation destroys molecules, but in this case, scientists think that it provided the energy that allowed the CH3+ molecule to form. Since nearby stars irradiate a lot of planet-forming disks, that means the formation process of the methyl cation could be widespread throughout these regions.

Relating Back to Earth

Our Sun and planets formed in essentially the same type of environment that d203-506 did. That is, in a stellar creche that included hot, massive, UV-bright stars existing alongside newly forming Sunlike stars. So, did the same irradiation also trigger the methyl cation in our birth cloud? Interestingly, analysis of meteorites (which trace conditions in the protoplanetary nebula) shows that it also experienced this same irradiation. And, here we are, 4 .6 billion years later, living on the only life-supporting planet that we know of—born in a disk heavily exposed to UV radiation.

That finding strengthens the idea that strong UV light doesn’t destroy some molecules and, in fact, pumps the production of it by providing the energy the cations need to form. According to Olivier Berné of the University of Toulouse, it’s a breakthrough for astrochemistry. “This clearly shows that ultraviolet radiation can completely change the chemistry of a proto-planetary disc. It might actually play a critical role in the early chemical stages of the origins of life by helping to produce CH3+ — something that has perhaps previously been underestimated,” he said.

For More Information

Webb Makes First Detection of Crucial Carbon Molecule in a Planet-forming Disc
Formation of the Methyl Cation by Photochemistry in a Protoplanetary Disk

The post Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST appeared first on Universe Today.



from Universe Today https://ift.tt/9h812YF
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Researchers Match Up 12 Meteorites with the Near-Earth Asteroids They Came From

Every day meteoroids blast through our planet’s atmosphere to hit the ground as meteorites. A team of researchers in Italy traced twelve of them to progenitor asteroids that orbit in near-Earth space. Scientists treasure meteorites because they reveal information about their parent bodies. In an arXiv paper, two Italian researchers—Albino Carbognani and Marco Fenucci—analyze the characteristics of the parent bodies of 20 selected meteorites. They were able to track all but eight back to their parent asteroids. Based on their work, the pair says at least a quarter of meteorites come from collisions that happened in near-Earth space and not in the Main Belt. Meteorites from Near-Earth Asteroids: How They Got Here Many meteorites are chondritic, similar to asteroids in the Main Belt (or came from it). In their paper, the authors point out that progenitor meteoroids (including many that fall to Earth and become meteorites) formed millions of years ago following collisions between main-...
Post a Comment
Read more

JWST Takes a Detailed Look at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede

Nature doesn’t conform to our ideas of neatly-contained categories. Many things in nature blur the lines we try to draw around them. That’s true of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System. The JWST took a closer look at Ganymede, the moon that’s kind of like a planet, to understand its surface better. Ganymede is basically a planet, except it doesn’t orbit the Sun. If it did orbit the Sun instead of Jupiter, it would be indistinguishable from a planet. It has a differentiated internal structure with a molten core that produces a magnetic field. It has a silicon mantle much like Earth’s, and has a complex icy crust with a deep ocean submerged beneath it. It has an atmosphere, though it’s thin. It’s also larger than Mercury, and almost as large as Mars. According to the authors of a new study, it’s an archetype of a water world. But even with all this knowledge of the huge moon, there are details yet to be revealed. This is especially true of its complex surface...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ultraviolet Habitable Zone Sets a Time Limit on the Formation of Life

The field of extrasolar planet studies has grown exponentially in the past twenty years. Thanks to missions like Kepler, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and other dedicated observatories, astronomers have confirmed 5,690 exoplanets in 4,243 star systems . With so many planets and systems available for study, scientists have been forced to reconsider many previously-held notions about planet formation and evolution and what conditions are necessary for life. In the latter case, scientists have been rethinking the concept of the Circumsolar Habitable Zone (CHZ). By definition, a CHZ is the region around a star where an orbiting planet would be warm enough to maintain liquid water on its surface. As stars evolve with time, their radiance and heat will increase or decrease depending on their mass , altering the boundaries of the CHZ. In a recent study , a team of astronomers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) considered how the evolution of star...
Post a Comment
Read more