The vital role of a carbon molecule called methyl cation (CH3+) in interstellar carbon chemistry was predicted in the 1970s, but the unique capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have finally made observing it possible — in a region of space where planets capable of accommodating life could eventually form.
Carbon compounds form the foundations of all known life, and as such are of a particular interest to scientists working to understand both how life developed on Earth, and how it could potentially develop elsewhere in our Universe.
As such, interstellar organic chemistry is an area of keen fascination to astronomers who study the places where new stars and planets form.
Molecular ions containing carbon are especially important, because they react with other small molecules to form more complex organic compounds even at low interstellar temperatures.
The methyl cation (CH3+) is one such carbon-based ion.
This ion has been posited by scientists to be of particular importance since the 1970s and 1980s.
This is due to a fascinating property of CH3+, which is that it reacts with a wide range of other molecules.
This little cation is significant enough that it has been theorized to be the cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry, yet until now it has never been detected.
Webb’s unique properties made it the ideal instrument to search for this crucial cation.
“This detection of CH3+ not only validates the incredible sensitivity of Webb but also confirms the postulated central importance of CH3+ in interstellar chemistry,” said Dr. Marie-Aline Martin, a researcher at Paris-Saclay University.
The CH3+ signal was detected in the protoplanetary disk of the d203-506 system, which is located about 1,350 light years away, in the Orion Nebula.
Whilst the star in d203-506 is a small red dwarf, with a mass only about a tenth of the Sun’s, the system is bombarded by strong ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot, young, massive…
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