A key carbon compound that helps to form the building blocks of life has been found around a distant star by the James Webb Space Telescope for the first time.
The molecule, methyl cation (CH3+), has been uncovered in the planet-forming protoplanetary disc around a red dwarf star, d203-506.
The system is located 1,350 lightyears away in the Orion Nebula.
The molecule helps promote chemical reactions, allowing the formation of the complex carbon molecules all known life is based on.
JWST’s exquisite spatial and spectral resolution, as well as its sensitivity, make it uniquely suited to finding such molecules.
Intriguingly, the red dwarf is surrounded by several large stars, which are bombarding the disc with ultraviolet radiation.
Normally, ultraviolet breaks apart carbon molecules, hindering their creation, but in this case it appears the radiation is providing the energy needed for CH3+ to form.
The discovery was announced in the journal Nature.
"This clearly shows that ultraviolet radiation can completely change the chemistry of a protoplanetary disk," says Olivier Berné from the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Toulouse who led the study.
"It might actually play a critical role in the early chemical stages of the origins of life."
Read the full paper at www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06307-x
