Something Never Seen Before in the Universe Appears in the Cat's Paw Nebula

(NLDO) - The Cat's Foot Nebula is a mysterious "stellar nursery" 5,500 light years from Earth.

According to Live Science, researchers have identified a new, unusually large molecule that has never been recorded in the universe before, called 2-methoxyethanol, existing in the middle of the Cat's Paw Nebula.

The Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 63341) is a giant cloud of gas and dust that acts as a cosmic "stellar nursery" that could be the center of new planetary systems.

Cat's Foot Nebula - Photo: NASA

Understanding how simple organic molecules like methane, ethanol and formaldehyde form helps scientists build a picture not only of how stars and galaxies are born, but also how life begins.

However, detecting these building blocks of life is not easy. Each molecule possesses a unique energy “barcode,” a set of specific wavelengths of light that the molecule can absorb.

This “barcode” can be easily recognized for samples in the lab, but astrochemists then have to find this same energy signature in space.

A team of authors led by astrochemist Zachary Fried from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - USA) conducted a similar search using a radio telescope.

When they turned their instruments toward the Cat's Paw Nebula, they discovered 2-methoxyethanol, a 13-atom molecule.

It has a basic structure similar to ethanol but one of the hydrogen atoms of ethanol (C₂H₆O) is replaced by a more complex methoxy group (O–CH ₃ ).

This unusual level of complexity is rare outside the Solar System. Only six molecules with more than 13 atoms have previously been discovered.

Molecules possessing simpler methoxyl groups have also been detected in the Cat's Foot Nebula and IRAS 16293 - a binary system of at least two forming protostars in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex - located 457 light-years from Earth.

The team hopes these findings can inform future studies to identify other undetected molecules in space.

The discovery of highly complex organic molecules in the universe plays a major role in laying the groundwork for searches for extraterrestrial life, as well as explaining our own origins.

Based on the latest evidence, complex organic molecules—many of which may have been the building blocks of early life—could well have formed in the harshness of interstellar space.

This means they are readily available in stellar nurseries and are always ready to be incorporated into the raw materials that make up new star systems.

Eventually, when a planet favorable for life emerges, these wandering molecules may follow comets and asteroids to land.

It is very possible that life on Earth began like this.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thu-chua-tung-thay-trong-vu-tru-hien-ra-giua-tinh-van-chan-meo-196240502084853863.htm