‘Ingredients for life’ found near star, fuelling alien hopes

Scientists have discovered key ‘ingredients for life’ near a distant star - a breakthrough that has reignited hopes in the search for alien life.

The key ingredients for life may be scattered across the universe in more places than first thought, according to a new study.

From prebiotic molecules in comets, to chemicals floating in the dust of interstellar space, scientists have traced the building blocks of life all across space.

Astronomers have recently discovered the key components to life swirling around a remote baby star roughly 1,300 light-years from Earth.

A protostar called V883 Orionis, tucked away in the constellation Orion, contains 17 complex organic molecules, including ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile.

These are the precursors to components found in DNA and RNA - which build all living things.

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The birth of stars is violent, emitting such a huge amount of energy that astronomers assumed these seeds of life would be obliterated. Picture: ESO/MPIA/HdA

The study, published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests the key components for life are far more common throughout the universe - offering a glimpse of hope for Earth’s alien hunters.

While similar compounds have been discovered elsewhere in the cosmos, astronomers assumed it wouldn’t be possible so close to a star.

The birth of stars is violent, emitting such a huge amount of energy that astronomers assumed these seeds of life would be obliterated.

It was thought that only the rare planetary systems — like Earth — would be capable of reproducing them.

“Now it appears the opposite is true,” study co-author Kamber Schwarz, an astrochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said in a statement.

“Our results suggest that protoplanetary discs inherit complex molecules from earlier stages, and the formation of complex molecules can continue during the protoplanetary disc stage.”

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, scientists spotted emission lines from a cluster of organic molecules inside a debris and gas rich disk encircling V883 Orionis.

Orion and the surrounding constellations seen in winter. Picture: Getty

This is in spite of the baby star pumping out powerful bursts of radiation.

“These outbursts are strong enough to heat the surrounding disc as far as otherwise icy environments, releasing the chemicals we have detected,” study first author Abubakar Fadul, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, added.

The organic compounds form on specks of ice in the debris and gas disk.

Instead of destroying these precious organic compounds, the star may actually be freeing them from these icy surfaces.

The researchers still need more data to see how well these compounds hold up as their host star grows.

“Perhaps we also need to look at other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to find even more evolved molecules,” Fadul said.

“Who knows what else we might discover?”

This story first appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission.

Originally published as ‘Ingredients for life’ found near star, fuelling alien hopes