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Discovery of methanol in a ‘warm’ planet-forming disk
Astronomers have identified the molecule methanol in the ‘warm zones’ of a protoplanetary disk circling a star about 360 light years from Earth.
The finding is significant because although methanol – CH3OH – is one of the simpler complex carbon-based molecules, it is a precursor chemical involved in the creation of more complex substances such as amino acids and proteins, the building blocks of life.
The methanol was identified by an international team of astronomers, including scientists from the University of Leeds, studying a star known as HD 100546 and its protoplanetary disk, the swirling dust and gas from which a planet is born. They are about 10 million years old and located in the direction of the southern constellation of the Fly (Musca).