A stronomers have detected the largest organic molecule ever seen in a cloud of planetforming dust, potentially offering new insights into the way that the building blocks of life end up on planets. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile, researchers studied the light emitted by different molecules in the lopsided ring of dust and ice surrounding the young star Oph-IRS 48, located about 444 light years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
Within the dusty ring, the researchers saw clear traces of an organic compound called dimethyl ether, a large molecule that’s commonly detected in stellar nurseries – cold, dusty regions of space where new stars form – and is a precursor to crucial building blocks of life such as amino acids and sugars.