The Webb telescope detects a crucial molecule in space for the first time

() — Astronomers first detected a crucial carbon molecule in space using the James Webb Space Telescope.

According to NASA, the compound, called a methyl cation or CH3+, was found in a young star system located 1,350 light-years from Earth, in the Orion Nebula.

Carbon compounds intrigue scientists because they are the basis of life as we know and understand it. The methyl cation is considered a key component that helps to form more complex carbon-based molecules.

Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth could help researchers determine if it is possible elsewhere in the universe. The highly sensitive capabilities of the Webb Telescope, which observes the cosmos through infrared light invisible to the human eye, are revealing more about organic chemistry in space.

The space observatory detected methyl cation in a protoplanetary disk, named d203-506, which revolves around a young red dwarf star. These disks, made up largely of gas and dust, are the remnants of star formation. Planets are born in these large stellar halos, giving rise to planetary systems.

Magazine Nature published a study on Monday detailing this discovery.

The role of ultraviolet radiation

Red dwarf stars are much smaller and cooler than our Sun, but the d203-506 system continues to be battered by intense ultraviolet light from neighboring young and massive stars.

In most scenarios, ultraviolet radiation is expected to kill off organic molecules, but in reality the team predicted that the radiation could provide a necessary energy source that enables the formation of the methyl cation.

Once CH3+ is formed, other chemical reactions take place that allow the formation of more complex carbon molecules, even at low temperatures in space.

This image from Webb’s mid-infrared instrument shows a small region of the Orion Nebula. (Credit: ESA/Webb/NASA/CSA)

Although the methyl cation does not react efficiently with hydrogen, the most abundant molecule in the universe, it does react well with a wide range of other molecules. Because of this chemical property, CH3+ has long been considered by astronomers to be an important component of interstellar organic chemistry. But the methyl cation had not been detected in space until now.

“This detection not only validates Webb’s incredible sensitivity, but also confirms the postulated central importance of CH3+ in interstellar chemistry,” said Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel, co-author of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Sciences at Orsay (France) from the University of Paris-Saclay.

The researchers detected different molecules in the d203-506 protoplanetary disk from those found in typical disks, and no water, according to the study.

“This clearly demonstrates that ultraviolet radiation can completely change the chemistry of a protoplanetary disk. Indeed, it could play a pivotal role in the early chemical stages of the origin of life,” Olivier Berné, lead author of the study and lead author of the study, said in a statement. scientific researcher in Astrophysics at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Toulouse.