Cheers! NASA’s Webb Finds Ethanol, Other Icy Ingredients for Worlds

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, W. Rocha (Leiden University)

This image at a wavelength of 15 microns was taken by MIRI (the Mid-Infrared Instrument) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, of a region near the protostar known as IRAS 23385. IRAS 23385 and IRAS 2A (not visible in this image) were targets for a recent research effort by an international team of astronomers that used Webb to discover that the key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds are present in early-stage protostars, where planets have not yet formed.

« Cheers! NASA’s Webb Finds Ethanol, Other Icy Ingredients for Worlds

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, L. Hustak (STScI). Science: W. Rocha (Leiden University).

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) has identified a variety of complex organic molecules that are present in interstellar ices surrounding two protostars. These molecules, which are key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds, include ethanol, formic acid, methane, and likely acetic acid, in the solid phase. The finding came from the study of two protostars, IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385, both of which are so young that they are not yet forming planets.

« Cheers! NASA’s Webb Finds Ethanol, Other Icy Ingredients for Worlds

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