Frozen complex organic molecules have been discovered for the first time around a young protostar in a galaxy other than our own, thanks to the observing power of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Astronomers led by Marta Sewiło of the University of Maryland used JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to detect myriad complex organic molecules (COMs) in ice that encase grains of dust around the massive protostar ST6 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is a neighboring dwarf galaxy about 163,000 light years away. COMs are classed as carbon-bearing molecules containing more than six atoms, and many COMs are the chemical precursors to the building blocks of life as we know it.
