They described this first-of-its-kind discovery in a study published on June 26 in the journal Nature.
Atoms are like Lego bricks: Each small building block combines to create something more complex, from molecules to enzymes to DNA.
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The Orion Nebula, where an important organic compound has just been discovered, sparkles in the images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
This particular methyl cation range exists in a protoplanetary disk called d203-506. This young star system is located within the Orion Nebula, approximately 1,350 light-years away from Earth.
Astronomers conducted observations using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which can resolve finer details than previous telescopes with extremely high precision.
The images captured by the James Webb Telescope reveal a portion of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. Co-author of the study, Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel, an astronomer at Paris-Saclay University, stated, “This discovery not only confirms the astonishing sensitivity of the James Webb Telescope but also underscores the central importance of CH3+ among the stars.”
During the early stages of planet formation, the protoplanetary disk is bathed in high-energy ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by the Sun and nearby young stars.
For many large, complex carbon-based molecules, UV radiation is a death sentence because its intense energy breaks them apart. However, this new research shows that UV radiation can actually be the key to the formation of methyl cations from the start, providing just enough energy to kickstart organic chemical processes, resulting in the formation of more complex carbon molecules and seeding the potential for life in a developing star system.
“This discovery clearly demonstrates that ultraviolet radiation can profoundly alter the chemical nature of a protoplanetary disk. It can indeed play a crucial role in the initial chemical stages of the origin of life,” said Olivier Berné, the lead author of the study and an astronomer at the French National Center for Scientific Research.
This is not the first discovery by the JWST of noteworthy molecules in the cosmos. Recent JWST observations have unveiled the oldest and farthest complex organic molecules ever detected, located 12.3 billion light-years away from Earth.