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Journalism of Courage
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers identified five carbon-rich compounds surrounding a nascent star called ST6 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy orbiting 160,000 light-years from Earth.
The discovery could illuminate how life’s building blocks formed in the universe’s infancy.
The LMC, part of the Local Group that includes the Milky Way, is bathed in harsh ultraviolet light from hot, young stars. With fewer heavy elements than our galaxy, it mirrors conditions in the early cosmos.
“Studying the LMC lets us probe chemistry in primitive environments with scarce heavy elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen,” said co-author Marta Sewilo, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s a window into distant, ancient galaxies.”
In March 2024, JWST trained its infrared gaze on ST6, revealing methanol, acetaldehyde, ethanol, methyl formate, and acetic acid—the sharp tang of vinegar—embedded in the protostar’s icy envelope.
Only methanol had previously been confirmed in extraterrestrial protostellar ice. Acetic acid marks a first definitive detection in space.
“Before Webb, methanol was the sole complex organic we’d nailed down in such ices, even in the Milky Way,” Sewilo said. “These spectra pack more data into a single observation than ever before.”The team also spotted tentative signs of glycolaldehyde, a precursor to ribose—the sugar backbone of RNA. Confirmation awaits further study.
The findings suggest dust grains can spark sophisticated chemistry even in metal-poor settings. The researchers plan to hunt for these molecules around other protostars in the Milky Way and beyond.
“This breakthrough reshapes our grasp of cosmic chemistry and opens bold new paths to unravel life’s origins,” Sewilo said.
