2023-06-27 11:15:38
An international team of scientists, using the James Webb Space Telescope, has managed to make the first detection in space of methenium (CH3+), a carbon compound also known as a methyl cation. This substance is important because it helps the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules.
The team that made the find is led by Olivier Berné, from the University of Toulouse, and Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel, from the University of Paris-Saclay, both institutions in France.
The detected methenium is in a protoplanetary disk of a young solar system called d203-506, located about 1,350 light-years away from Earth, in the Orion Nebula. A protoplanetary disk is a disk of gas and dust around a star and from which planets can form.
Carbon compounds form the basis of all known life and, as such, are especially interesting for investigating how life arose on Earth and how it could or could have arisen elsewhere in the universe.
Webb’s unique capabilities make it an ideal observatory for searching the cosmos for this crucial substance. The high spatial and spectral resolution of the Webb has been decisive for the finding. In particular, Webb’s detection of a telltale series of CH3+ emission lines was the basis of the discovery.
In the central area of this sector of the Orion nebula is the solar system d203-506, in whose protoplanetary disk methenium has been detected. (Photo: ESA / Webb / NASA / CSA / M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) / PDRs4All ERS Team)
“This detection not only validates the incredible sensitivity of Webb, but also confirms the importance that has been attached to CH3+ in interstellar chemistry,” says Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel. Although d203-506’s star is a red dwarf (a dim, low-hot star), the system is bombarded by intense ultraviolet light from nearby hot, young, and massive stars. It is believed that most protoplanetary disks go through a period of ultraviolet radiation as intense as that observed in d203-506, since stars tend to form in groups that often include massive stars, large producers of ultraviolet rays.
Normally, ultraviolet radiation would be expected to destroy complex organic molecules, so the discovery of CH3+ might come as a surprise. However, the research team believes that ultraviolet radiation may actually provide the necessary energy source for the formation of CH3+. Once formed, the compound promotes further chemical reactions that drive the formation of more complex carbon molecules.
The study is titled “Formation of the Methyl Cation by Photochemistry in a Protoplanetary Disk”. And it has been published in the academic journal Nature.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the result of an international collaboration led by NASA, ESA and CSA, respectively the US, European and Canadian space agencies. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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