Two teams of astronomers have used ALMA in Chile in a highly interesting discovery. The astronomers have found the said "ingredients" of the biological basis of life in infant sun-like stars.
Phys.org reported that two teams of astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeters/Submillimeter Array or the ALMA in such an interesting profound discovery. The astronomers were able to detect the contents of the basis of life in the multiple star system known as the IRAS 16293-222. Specifically, the discovered ingredients on the basis of life are comprised of prebiotic complex organic molecule methyl isocyanate.
According to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the multiple star system was about 400 light years away from Earth and scientists believe that the group of stars found in the ALMA resembles as versions of our own sun. One of the team was co-led by Victor M. Rivilla at the INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in Florence, Italy along with Rafael Martin-Domenech at the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid, Spain. While the other team was let by Audrey Coutens at University College London, United Kingdom, and Niels Ligterink at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.
It was the capabilities of the ALMA which give way for the two teams to freely observe the molecule present in the multiple stars. The unique chemical fingerprints of the stars have sparked some unique chemical fingerprints in the radio spectrum which are just in their earliest stages of development or infant stage of evolution.
The methyl isocyanate when on Earth is a highly toxic substance, but when it's in the interstellar environment and been combined with other molecules, it will serve as a basis of life. It is because the combination will form peptides and amino acids which are the form of proteins.
According to astronomers Victor M. Rivilla and Rafael Martin-Domenech, the lead authors of the papers noted that they are very particularly excited on the result for the multiple stars which ALMA found are very similar to the Sun and are very suitable for Earth-sized planets to form. Besides the stars keep on giving and the prebiotic molecules provide another piece of the puzzle to assemble for the purpose of understanding how life came to Earth.
