Methanol, an organic molecule crucial to life, found on star near Earth

A team of astronomers has found methanol, a complex organic molecule crucial to the development of life, in the protoplanetary disc around the young star TW Hydrae, which is only around 170 light years from Earth.

The European Southern Observatory said Wednesday in a statement that a group of astronomers from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, using the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array telescope, has for the first time detected the organic molecule methyl alcohol, or methanol, in a planetforming disc.

Methanol “plays a vital role in the creation of the rich organic chemistry needed for life” and is a “building block for more complex species of fundamental prebiotic importance, like amino acid compounds,” the ESO said.

“Methanol in gaseous form in the disc is an unambiguous indicator of rich organic chemical processes at an early stage of star and planet formation,” said Ryan A. Loomis, one of the authors of the study titled “First detection of gasphase methanol in a protoplanetary disk” and published in Astrophysical Journal.

“This result has an impact on our understanding of how organic matter accumulates in very young planetary systems,” Loomis added.