Astronomers have detected the presence of two molecules in the disc surrounding the star designated MWC 480, in a region that is similar to the Kuiper Belt around our Sun. The discovery of these building blocks of life in a young star shows that the conditions that create organic molecules can happen across the cosmos.
The Kuiper Belt in our Solar System is a collection of icy objects that includes comets that reside beyond the orbit of Neptune.
"In the Solar System, complex organic molecules are common on many planets, moons, comets and asteroids. Comets are most relevant point of comparison for this study."
"They preserve a record of what the young Solar System looked like chemically and should have a similar chemical composition to the MWC 480 disk which is chemically comparable with our Solar System" Karin Öberg, lead author of the research, told Sen in an email.
"We now have even better evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the Universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own" said Öberg, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in a statement.
MWC 480 is a very young star, so young that the observatory has not been able to detect any planets or even protoplanets, just the molecules. In the disc, scientists found a carbon-based organic molecule called methyl cyanide and the simpler version of it called hydrogen cyanide.
The star formed out of an interstellar cloud of dust and gas, which are well known to be rich in organics. Cyanides are abundant in clouds and are interesting because they have bonds of both carbon and nitrogen. These bonds form the basis of amino acids, proteins and then life.
The discovery was particular noteworthy because of how harsh the environment is in and around MWC 480. Because the radiation levels around the star are so intense, it was not clear if the chemical bonds could survive. However, astronomers found more of these molecules in this area than in the interstellar cloud, showing that these discs are able to form the molecules quite easily.
As telescopes become more and more sensitive, scientists believe they will one day be able to detect organics on planets beyond our Solar System. However, Öberg explained, "It will be difficult to search for similarly complex molecules toward more evolved systems since the gas sublimating from debris in Kuiper belt analogs is unprotected from the stellar radiation field and thus quickly dissociates."
"Since this was a single molecule in a single system we will next try a more systematic survey to explore around which kind of stars, which kind of complex molecules are common."
