Complex organic molecules, known as the building blocks of life, are found in a protoplanetary disk nearby a young star.
Astronomers discovered that the protoplanetary disk surrounding the star MWC 480, which is a million years old, is full of the complex carbon-based molecule called methyl cyanide (CH3CN), according to the statement released by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
According to the statement, methyl cyanide (CH3CN) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) were discovered in the cold outer reaches of the newly formed disk of the star MWC 480.
The astronomers believe that the area where these molecules were found is similar to the orbit of short-period comets and dwarf planets beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt.
This discovery indicates that the conditions that created the Earth and the Sun are not unique in the universe. The young star MWC 480 is 455 light-years away in the Taurus star-forming region and is two times the mass of the Sun.
In order to study the young star system, the team led by CfA's Karin Oberg used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA has not discovered signs of planets joining in the disk of dust and gas surrounding the young star yet. However, such objects might be uncovered by observations at greater resolution in the future, according to The Space Reporter.
Using the significant sensitivity of ALMA, the astronomers were able to discover that complex organic molecules survive and increase.
What the astronomers were not able to discover was the possibility that the same complex organic molecules normally develop and survive in a newly forming solar system's energetic environment.