THE most complex molecules yet found in space have shown how organic matter is created, pointing to a rare type of star as the origin for life鈥檚 building blocks.
The hydrocarbons anthracene and pyrene have been found in a nebula called the Red Rectangle, 1000 light years from Earth, it was reported last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia. A team led by Adolf Witt of the University of Toledo, Ohio, found the molecules鈥� spectral signatures in ultraviolet light from the nebula.
Anthracene and pyrene are polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) whose molecules contain a total of 24 and 26 atoms respectively, arranged in adjacent rings. This is about twice the size of the previous record holder from space, a chain of 13 atoms.
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Huge quantities of PAHs are thought to exist in deep space, and amino acids have been found in meteorites landing on Earth. Organic molecules like these must have rained down on the early Earth and may have helped life begin. Their source is uncertain, but Witt is now sure they came from places like the Red Rectangle.
At the core of the nebula is a star near the end of its life, going through a turbulent stage in which convection currents dredge carbon-rich material from deep within the star. Carbon and hydrogen get blown out, and as the gas cools, these atoms collide to form larger and larger molecules. 鈥淓ventually this will form particles of a million atoms or more,鈥� says Witt. 鈥淲e are looking into a factory for organic molecules.鈥�