Life’s building blocks found in a baby star’s planet-forming disc

A baby star is lighting up more than just its corner of space – it’s also revealing the raw ingredients that could eventually form life.

Astronomers have detected 17 complex organic molecules in the planet-forming disc around a young star called V883 Orionis. Among them are ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – two molecules long suspected but never before seen in this kind of environment.

These findings come from a team at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.

The study offers new insight into how life’s chemistry might emerge well before planets fully form.

Star stirs up organic soup

V883 Orionis isn’t an ordinary young star. It’s in the middle of a growth spurt, pulling in gas and blasting out intense energy.

The outburst temporarily heats its surrounding disc of dust and ice, releasing complex molecules that frozen grains usually trap. These molecules become visible to astronomers using tools like ALMA, which can detect the radio signals they emit.

“Complex molecules, including ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile, radiate at radio frequencies,” said MPIA scientist Kamber Schwarz. “ALMA is perfectly suited to detect those signals.”

The detected molecules include precursors to amino acids like glycine and alanine, and even adenine, one of the building blocks of DNA. Ethylene glycol – the same compound used in antifreeze – also plays a role in prebiotic chemistry.

“We recently found ethylene glycol could form by UV irradiation of ethanolamine, a molecule that was recently discovered in space,” said Tushar Suhasaria, co-author and head of MPIA’s Origins of Life Lab.

“This finding supports the idea that ethylene glycol could form in those environments, but also in later stages of molecular evolution, where UV irradiation is dominant.”

Origins of life-friendly chemistry

Scientists have long wondered when and where life-friendly chemistry begins – and whether it starts before a star fully forms.

For a while, the assumption was that dramatic transitions – like the shift from a protostar to a fully formed star – would wipe out fragile organic molecules.

That led to a theory called the “reset” model, where any life-forming compounds would have to rebuild from scratch in newly forming planetary discs. But new evidence from V883 Orionis challenges that idea.

“Our finding points to a straight line of chemical enrichment and increasing complexity between interstellar clouds and fully evolved planetary systems,” said Abubakar Fadul of MPIA.

Star formation doesn’t erase life

Instead of being erased, complex molecules may survive early star formation and carry over into planet-forming regions.

“Now it appears the opposite is true,” explained Schwarz. “Our results suggest that protoplanetary discs inherit complex molecules from earlier stages, and the formation of complex molecules can continue during the protoplanetary disc stage.”

That would mean the seeds of biology – like amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases – are not just possible in one solar system but likely common across the universe.

How stars trigger molecule release

The chemistry behind these molecules starts small and cold. Dust grains in space act like tiny laboratories, where atoms and simple molecules stick to icy surfaces and gradually become more complex. These ice-bound compounds are nearly impossible to detect – unless something heats them up.

That’s where young stars like V883 Orionis come in. When the star pulls in more gas, it emits powerful radiation that warms even the outer parts of its disc.

“These outbursts are strong enough to heat the surrounding disc as far as otherwise icy environments, releasing the chemicals we have detected,” said Fadul.

The heating process is similar to what happens with comets in our own Solar System. As they approach the Sun, their icy surfaces vaporize, forming visible tails and releasing trapped organic molecules.

The search for life’s chemistry isn’t over

The MPIA team knows there’s more to uncover. Though this discovery is major, their spectral data still holds mysteries.

“While this result is exciting, we still haven’t disentangled all the signatures we found in our spectra,” said Schwarz. “Higher resolution data will confirm the detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – and maybe even reveal more complex chemicals we simply haven’t identified yet.”

“Perhaps we also need to look at other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to find even more evolved molecules,” noted Fadul. “Who knows what else we might discover?”

Universe favors life’s chemistry

Finding these complex organic molecules in a young star’s disc reinforces a bigger idea: the universe might have wired itself chemically for life from the start.

If molecules like these are common in planet-forming regions, then life-friendly chemistry could be happening everywhere – and not just by chance.

This doesn’t mean we’ve found life, or even direct evidence of it. But it does mean the starting materials are out there, hiding in the ice, waiting for a star to wake them up.

The full study was published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–