Astronomers have found that complex, organic compounds -- previously thought to arise only from living organisms -- may be brewing in the chemical factories around young stars, and blasted out into the universe in star dust.
Sun Kwok and Yong Zhang of the University of Hong Kong discovered that an organic substance, found frequently throughout the universe, has a very complicated structure. It has both aromatic (ring-like) and aliphatic (chain-like) components, linking up hydrogen and carbon.
Those complicated shapes resemble the structures of coal and petroleum compounds -- both of which are the remnants of ancient life here on Earth. Therefore, this type of organic matter was thought to be exclusive to place with life -- but this discovery argues otherwise.
Kwok and Zhang looked at unidentified infrared emission features -- unsolved mystery matter that permeates the stars, interstellar space and galaxies. This is commonly thought to be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mocules -- simple compounds of hydrogen and carbon, which wouldn't raise many eyebrows.
But after thoroughly investigating the infrared emissions with the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope, the team found the compounds to be far more intricate and complicated in their structure. The astronomical spectra has features that just can't be explained by PAH.
Instead, the team believes that stars are capable of assembling elements into clever shapes, and by analysing spectra of star dust formed in exploding stars (novae), they find that stars make these compounds over very shorttime scales -- within weeks.
The team states, in the paper's abstract, that the structure is similar to that of the organic materials that are sometimes found in meteorites -- "as would be expected if the Solar System had inherited these organic materials from interstellar sources". Whether these delivered organic compounds played any role in the development of life on Earth, though, remains an open question.