The new carbon compound in space forms the basis of all known life, and the research team has located this compound in the “Orion Nebula”, which is located in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star, 1,350 light-years away from Earth.
An international research team was able to detect a carbon compound called dimethyl “CH3+” (CH3+) for the first time in space, using data collected by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. results the study In the journal Nature on June 26.
“This discovery sheds light on how organic compounds are formed in space and their ability to form life, and also enhances our understanding of the origin of life, and may contribute to the search for life outside the planet in particular,” Maryam Al-Yajouri, the Moroccan researcher participating in the discovery, told Al-Jazeera Net via e-mail.
A new carbon compound
This new carbon compound in space forms the basis of all known life, and the research team has located this carbon compound in the “Orion Nebula”, which is located in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star 1350 light years away from Earth.
Just Press release According to “NASA”, scientists have found fingerprints of a molecule in the light coming from a rotating planetary disk of dust and gas around a young star, and the disk is located in the “Orion Nebula” 1350 light-years from Earth, knowing that the planetary disks are preliminary stages. To form groups similar to the solar system.
Al-Yajouri says, “This discovery is important because carbon is the basic element in the organic compounds that form the basis of life on Earth, and the CH3 + molecule is considered the beginning of chemical reactions and the formation of more complex organic compounds, which means the presence of basic components for life in space, and this is a discovery.” It is important to understand how life appeared on Earth and how it might evolve elsewhere.”
The Orion Nebula region where the protoplanetary disk D203-506 is located and this is where the CH3+ molecule was discovered (NASA)
Confirmation of the predictions of scientists since the seventies
According to researcher Maryam Al-Yajouri, “This study is of great importance in the scientific community, because it confirms the expectations of scientists since the 1970s regarding the role of the “CH3 +” molecule in organic chemistry in space, and this discovery will contribute to the development of astrophysical models and enhance our understanding of planet formation processes. and life in the universe.
According to the scientific study carried out by the research team, it was “suggested that organic chemistry in the gaseous phase in space began with the methyl cation” CH3 + “40 years ago, but until now it has not been discovered outside the solar system, and this has now become possible.” Thanks to the data and capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope.”
“The unexpected nature of the discovery posed a great challenge to the research team,” Mariam said in her interview with Al-Jazeera Net via e-mail.
“When we first captured the spectrum of the planet-forming disk, we were surprised because we didn’t know what we were observing,” she says. “To address this, we sought the help of other scientists – particularly spectroscopy scientists who work in laboratory work – to try to reproduce the conditions of space to reproduce molecules.”
James Webb Telescope
According to the NASA press release, “a team of research used the NASA James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time, and it is an important molecule because it helps form carbon molecules.”
Compounds of carbon underlie all known life, and as such are particularly interesting to scientists working to understand how life evolved on Earth and how it might evolve elsewhere in our universe.
A small region of the Orion Nebula, and in the center of this view, the team discovered the methyl cation molecule “CH3+” (NASA)
Al-Yajouri explained, “We received the initial data from the James Webb telescope within the framework of the International Experimental Program (ERS-PDRs4 AII) (ERS-PDRs4All) on the Orion bar in Orion last September, and this means that it has passed It’s almost 10 months before we can publish this discovery.”
“Between analyzing the data, calibrating it, processing it, and then comparing it with laboratory data, it is a long-term and continuous work in the long term, but in the end there is a return to the efforts made,” she says.
“The James Webb Telescope helped us in this discovery through its unique capabilities in spectral technology. It is a powerful and sensitive space telescope that can monitor weak signals in the infrared range from star-forming regions, nebulae, developing planets and distant galaxies,” Yajouri added.
And she concludes her speech to Al-Jazeera Net about the future of research in this discovery by saying, “This scientific discovery needs more in-depth research in the future, because in recent decades it was considered that the formation of organic molecules in space occurs mainly on the surface of the granules, but the discovery of” CH3+ ” indicates the existence of alternative methods in the gas phase to activate organic chemistry in the presence of ultraviolet radiation, while the detection of “CH3+” is a promising achievement, and there are many remaining questions about the catalysis, chemistry and spectral properties of this molecule.
