James Webb telescope finds 'molecule of life' in the Orion nebula

So, they started looking for other scientists who could help, and they found Schlemmer's Lab.One of the most important unsolved problems of modern science is: How did life arise from non-living matter?

We still don't know, but we have a good idea of what the required steps are. For instance, the formation of complex organic molecules, like amino acids, from simpler ones, like CH₃+, or methylium.

Life as we know it is carbon-based

The CH₃+ molecule, also known as a methyl cation, has been detected in space for the first time by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The preliminary unedited results were published on 26 June 2023 in the journal Nature.

Organic molecules are carbon-based. They contain carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms, but they can also bond to other elements, such as oxygen, nitrogen or phosphorus.

Everything that makes us and all life on Earth is carbon-based.

CH₃+ is a very simple organic molecule, just one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms. But it reacts with other molecules to form more complex ones. Its presence in space tells us that the basic building blocks for life are out there, not just here on Earth.

"This CH₃+ is an initiator of a lot of very interesting, more complex reactions," said Stephan Schlemmer, professor of experimental physics at Cologne University, Germany. Schlemmer was part of an international team that worked on the latest findings.

Looking for molecular fingerprints in space

Scientists found the fingerprints of the CH₃+ molecule in light coming from a swirling disc of dust and gas around a young star. The disc is in the Orion nebula, 1,350 light years from Earth.

The Orion nebula is visible to the naked eye, although you may only see it as a dot on Orion's sword, slightly below the belt.

Every atom and molecule absorbs or emits light uniquely, with its own specific colour palette. Visible light is just a fraction of the whole picture, however.

For example, hydrogen, the simplest of atoms, emits a red glow when excited, and if you view it through a prism, you will see four characteristic lines that make up its spectrum.

Scientists call this technique spectroscopy, and in space, they use the James Webb Space Telescope to do it.

An unexpected discovery

However, when astronomers captured the spectrum of this planet-forming disc in Orion, it came as a surprise, because "nobody knew what it was," said Schlemmer.

So, they started looking for other scientists who could help, and they found Schlemmer's lab.

The lab had been studying the spectroscopic fingerprints of various molecules and had analysed CH₃+ in detail. And that was what enabled scientists to match the unknown fingerprint detected by the JWST to this specific, life-giving molecule.

And that means... Life could be out there as well, not just here.