Webb Makes First Detection of Crucial Carbon Molecule
There is more than meets the eye in this image! 👀
A team of international scientists has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Carbon compounds form the foundations of all known life, and as such are particularly interesting to scientists working to understand both how life developed on Earth, and how it could potentially develop elsewhere in our universe.
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), and the PDRs4All ERS Team
Visual description: The scene is divided by an undulating formation running diagonally from lower left to upper right. On the left side, clouds are various shades of blue with some translucent orange wisps throughout. On the right side, clouds vary from bright orange-red to brown. Stars are scattered across the entire image.
Webb Makes First Detection of Crucial Carbon Molecule
There is more than meets the eye in this image! 👀
A team of international scientists has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Carbon compounds form the foundations of all known life, and as such are particularly interesting to scientists working to understand both how life developed on Earth, and how it could potentially develop elsewhere in our universe.
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), and the PDRs4All ERS Team
Visual description: The scene is divided by an undulating formation running diagonally from lower left to upper right. On the left side, clouds are various shades of blue with some translucent orange wisps throughout. On the right side, clouds vary from bright orange-red to brown. Stars are scattered across the entire image.