It turned out that organic molecules are present in the cosmic clouds of gas and dust, from which planets are formed, reports nature.com.
Scientists have found that the cloud of particles from which the planet is then formed is already methanol – an organic molecule necessary for the formation of life.
Moreover, these molecules are formed, as scientists suggest, even before the formation of a star.
As astrochemist Viviana Guzman told the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, methanol can theoretically be present on all the planets that form around the stars.
Previously, astronomers did not know if organic molecules could survive the formation of a protoplanetary disk, the radiation of which could destroy molecular structures.
Astronomer Alice Booth of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and his colleagues discovered a cloud of dust and gas around the young star HD 100546.
It was in this cloud that methanol was found. Recall that this molecule is formed during the interaction of hydrogen with carbon monoxide ice (this substance freezes at a temperature of -254 degrees Celsius).
It turns out that life in space sometimes, as it were deliberately appears where it should be. The universe is full of mysteries, isn’t it?
