Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found chemical ingredients required to make margaritas and vinegar around two young protostars in space.
NASA said that although planets are not yet forming around those stars known as IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385, these ingredients and other molecules detected there by Webb represent key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds.
An international team of astronomers used Webb's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to identify a variety of icy compounds made up of complex organic molecules like ethanol (alcohol) and likely acetic acid (an ingredient in vinegar), the space agency said in a statement.
This work builds on previous Webb detections of diverse ices in a cold, dark molecular cloud, it said.
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New Webb data shows icy, carbon-containing molecules around 2 baby stars that have yet to form planets. These findings tell us about how such molecules may get transported to potentially habitable worlds: https://t.co/y6J4MzTx6R pic.twitter.com/5BDzR4Lk3MThe science team also detected simpler molecules, including formic acid (which causes the burning sensation of an ant sting), methane, formaldehyde, and sulfur dioxide.
Research suggests that sulfur-containing compounds like sulfur dioxide played an important role in driving metabolic reactions on the primitive Earth, NASA said.
"All of these molecules can become part of comets and asteroids and eventually new planetary systems when the icy material is transported inward to the planet-forming disk as the protostellar system evolves," Ewine van Dishoeck of Leiden University, one of the coordinators of the science program said.
"We look forward to following this astrochemical trail step-by-step with more Webb data in the coming years."
NASA said that these observations were made for the JOYS+ (James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars) program. The team dedicated these results to team member Harold Linnartz, who unexpectedly passed away in December 2023, shortly after the acceptance of this paper.
This research has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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