The Cat’s Paw Nebula is a mysterious “star nursery” located 5,500 light-years from Earth.
According to Live Science, researchers have identified a new, unusually large molecule that has never been recorded in the universe before, called 2-methoxyethanol.
The Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) is a massive cloud of gas and dust that serves as a “star nursery” in the universe, where potential centers of new planetary systems are formed.
Cat’s Paw Nebula – (Photo: NASA).
Understanding how simple organic molecules such as methane, ethanol, and formaldehyde form helps scientists build a picture not only of how stars and galaxies are born but also how life itself begins.
However, discovering these fundamental building blocks of life is not easy. Each molecule possesses a unique “barcode” of energy, a set of specific light wavelengths that the molecule can absorb.
This “barcode” can be easily recorded for samples in the laboratory, but then astronomers must find similar energy signatures in space.
A team led by astrophysicist Zachary Fried from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducted a similar search using radio telescopes.
When they pointed their instruments toward the Cat’s Paw Nebula, they discovered 2-methoxyethanol, a 13-atom molecule.
This molecule has a basic structure similar to ethanol, but one of the hydrogen atoms in ethanol (C₂H₆O) is replaced by a more complex methoxy group (O–CH3).
This unusual level of complexity is very rare outside of the solar system. Previously, only six types of molecules with more than 13 atoms had been discovered.
Simpler methoxy-containing molecules have also been found in the Cat’s Paw Nebula and IRAS 16293 – a binary system comprising at least two forming protostars in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, located 457 light-years from Earth.
The research team hopes these findings can provide insights for future studies aimed at identifying other undiscovered molecules in space.
The detection of highly complex organic molecules in the universe plays a significant role in laying the groundwork for the search for extraterrestrial life, as well as explaining our own origins.
Based on the latest evidence, complex organic molecules – many of which could be the building blocks of primitive life – can indeed form in the harsh environment between stars.
This means that they are readily available in star nurseries and are always prepared to be incorporated into the materials that create new star systems.
Ultimately, when a planet favorable for life emerges, these wandering molecules may arrive via comets or asteroids.
It is very possible that life on Earth began this way.
