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Observations of the protoplanetary disk around protostar V883 Orionis have revealed complex organic molecules that could be precursors to life.

The most significant molecules found are ethylene glycol and glyconitrize—both of which are ingredients for compounds in DNA and RNA.

While these molecules were observed in radio, the astronomers who detected them now plan to examine other spectral bands to see if more organics might surface.

Life on Earth might have incredibly distant origins. While even the earliest life-forms did (as far as we know) spawn on terra firma, at least some ingredients for the proteins and enzymes that create DNA may have come from realms beyond our planet. Though organics scattered throughout space are not necessarily signs of extraterrestrial life, some organic compounds could be. Their presence in other star systems might give us an idea of how proteins and other molecules came together and allowed life to emerge billions of years ago.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a team of researchers—led by astronomer Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy—observed complex organic molecules swirling in the protoplanetary disk of protostar V883 Orionis. Nascent planets and other celestial objects are probably evolving in the shroud of dust and gas surrounding this young star as we speak, and alongside them are complex organic molecules (COMs). These are considered precursors to the stuff of life, including what could be the first detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile in outer space.

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Ethylene glycol or (CH 2 OH) 2 is a sugar alcohol that is toxic if ingested. However, it is also considered prebiotic, or a precursor to life. Glyconitrile (HOCH 2 CN)—one of the main factors in the formation of the nucleobase adenine, which is part of both DNA and RNA—shares this distinction.

“COMs are found in the warm inner envelopes surrounding the protostars, rather than in a fully formed protoplanetary disk, as they are in a more embedded phase where the surrounding cloud material plays a key role in molecule formation and desorption processes,” Fadul and his team said in a study recently published in The Astronomical Journal.

V883 Orionis is located about 1,305 light-years away in the constellation of Orion and is currently going through a phase known as an accretion burst. As the star continues to glow brighter and brighter, it heats up the gaseous protoplanetary disk that obscures our view of the system, making it easier for a telescope to detect COMs. It used to be thought that the overwhelming radiation and ejection of gas from a protostar transitioning into a young star would obliterate these molecules, but the ALMA observations instead showed that COMs are able to stick around in the early stages of protoplanetary disk formation. In fact, they can keep forming even as the star grapples with the violent outbursts that come along with stellar puberty.

Ethylene glycol is now thought to be the result of UV radiation bombarding another molecule recently found in space called ethanolamine. This discovery is proof that ethylene glycol can survive in an environment much like our own Solar System did in its youth. When motes of dust carrying COMs are drawn to each other by gravity, they stick together, creating larger objects that keep accreting into even larger objects until they become planetesimals, which can eventually merge into planets. This is one way COMs can spread throughout a planetary system.

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Not all space rocks, however, make it to planet status. Comets are leftover planetesimals that formed on the outer fringes of star systems—hunks of rock that have been iced over in the extreme cold. They are known to carry both simple and complex organic molecules, and might have brought some our way by crashing into Earth, back when objects were often colliding with each other in the early Solar System. Cosmic ice and its life cycle are thought to be related to how organics form and what alterations they might experience.

Because stellar radiation heats comets and releases molecules trapped in comet ice, it is possible to identify COMs they might carry using spectroscopy. The hot outbursts of V883 Orionis are powerful enough to reach frozen regions where heat causes ice to evaporate and release molecules. ALMA was able to detect methylene glycol and glyconitrile at radio frequencies, and now the researchers suspect there are more COMs—some of which may have evolved further into what could one day be the foundations of life—just waiting to be found in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.

“While this result is exciting, we still haven’t disentangled all the signatures we found in our spectra,” study coauthor Kamber Schwarz, also from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said in a recent press release. “Higher-resolution data will confirm the detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile and even reveal more complex chemicals we simply haven’t identified yet.”