Search results for molecules in interstellar space

Astrobiology Mar 13, 2024

Unraveling the origins of life: Scientists discover 'cool' sugar acid formation in space

A critical molecule for the metabolism of living organisms has been synthesized for the first time by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers at low temperatures (10 K) on ice coated nanoparticles mimicking conditions ...

Astronomy Mar 13, 2024

Webb finds ethanol and other icy ingredients for new worlds

An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a variety of molecules, ranging from relatively simple ones like methane to complex compounds like acetic acid and ethanol, ...

Astronomy Mar 11, 2024

Webb peers into the tendrils of NGC 604

Two new images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) showcase the star-forming region NGC 604, located in the Triangulum galaxy (M33), 2.73 million ...

Space Exploration Mar 1, 2024

When an object like 'Oumuamua comes around again, we could be ready with an interstellar object explorer

On October 19th, 2017, astronomers with the Pann-STARRS survey observed an interstellar object passing through our system—1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua. This was the first time an ISO was detected, confirming that such objects pass ...

Astronomy Feb 26, 2024

Steward Observatory balloon mission breaks NASA record 22 miles above Antarctica

Fifty-eight days ago, on a nearly windless morning on the Ross Ice Shelf, a stadium-size balloon took flight above Antarctica, carrying with it far infrared technology from the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory ...

Astronomy Feb 23, 2024

Researchers find destruction of oceans' worth of water per month in Orion Nebula

An international team, including Western astrophysicists Els Peeters and Jan Cami, has found the destruction and re-formation of a large quantity of water in a planet-forming disk located at the heart of the Orion Nebula.

Astrobiology Jan 26, 2024

Early life was radically different than today

All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged from a simpler, less efficient, more delicate one. But what was that system, and why ...

Astronomy Jan 11, 2024

A three-step mechanism explaining ultraviolet-induced CO desorption from CO ice

The desorption of CO ice induced by ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a phenomenon that occurs in some cold parts of the universe, which has often also been replicated in laboratory settings. While this phenomenon is now well-documented, ...

Astronomy Jan 10, 2024

Webb finds signs of possible aurorae on isolated brown dwarf

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. ...

Planetary Sciences Dec 21, 2023

Analysis finds that organic compounds in asteroids likely formed in colder regions of space

Analysis of organic compounds—called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—extracted from the Ryugu asteroid and Murchison meteorite has found that certain PAHs likely formed in the cold areas of space between stars ...

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