Thehydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 )plays a key role in the chemistry of water and ozone in Earth’s atmosphere, and is known for its use as a disinfectant and hair bleach. Nowastronomers have detected it in a region of our galaxy near the star Rho Ophiuchi, about 400 light years away.
An international team of researchers has made the discoverywith the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, which makes observations of light at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, are ideal for detecting signals from these molecules. Scientists have found the characteristic property of light emitted by oxygenated water in the Rho Ophiuchi clouds, where new stars are being born. These clouds of cosmic gas and dust are very dense and cold (around -250 ° C) and are composed mainly of hydrogen, although they contain traces of other chemicals, such as the one detected now.
“We were very excited to discover the hydrogen peroxide signals with APEX,” says Per Bergman, OSO astronomer and lead author of the study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. ? We knew from laboratory experiments what wavelengths to look for, but the amount of hydrogen peroxide in the cloud is one single molecule for every ten billion hydrogen molecules, so detection required a lot of observations. careful “.
Hydrogen peroxide is a key molecule for both astronomers and chemists. Its formation is closely linked to two other molecules fundamental for life, oxygen and water. Much of the water on our planet is believed to have originally formed in space, and researchers are interested in understanding how it is generated. Thescientists think hydrogen peroxide forms in space on the surfaces of cosmic dust grains– very fine particles, similar to sand and soot – when hydrogen (H) is added to oxygen molecules (O2). A new reaction of hydrogen peroxide with more hydrogen is a way to produce water (H2O). The new detection of this peroxide will therefore help tobetter understand the formation of water in the universe.
