Atoms are like Lego bricks: Each little building block combines to make something more complicated — from molecules, to enzymes, to DNA. For the first time, astronomers have detected a crucial step in this process: the molecule methyl cation (CH3+), which plays an important role in creating the complex carbon chemistry required for life as we know it. Astronomers described the first-of-its-kind detection in a study published June 26 in the journal Nature.
This particular swath of methyl cation lives in a protoplanetary disk called d203-506. This infant solar system is located in the Orion Nebula, about 1,350 light-years from Earth. Astronomers made the observations thanks to NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which can resolve smaller details than past telescopes could. It can also pick out the signatures of specific molecules — also called molecules' emission lines — with great precision.
