A group of German and North American astronomers led by Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has discovered an organic isopropyl cyanide molecule in a gigantic gas cloud located no less than 27,000 light years from Earth.
What is interesting about this compound is its chemical complexity, which suggests that the ingredients necessary for life to sprout may come from space.
In fact, the scientists made the finding indirectly , after analyzing the radio waves emitted by the substance in the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), an observatory located at 5,000 meters of altitude in the Chilean desert.
What differentiates the isopropyl cyanide molecule from other carbon compounds is its branched shape , when the normal structure is linear. This opens the door to the possibility of complex molecules forming in space and arriving on board meteorites to our planet, sowing the seeds of biology.
The researchers targeted the region of the Milky Way called Sagittarius B2, an interstellar cloud where stars are forming. Indeed, some experts link this process to the creation of prebiotic organic molecules such as the one now discovered.
