A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters has detected methanol isotopes around a nearby star, which could help explain why the ingredients for life are present on Earth. Researchers found alcohol in the orbit of a young star called HD 100453, about 330 light-years from our planet.
The discovery was made using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. ALMA maps the chemical composition and distribution of gas in nearby protoplanetary disks. The team discovered that the ratio of methanol to other organic molecules in HD 100453’s disk is similar to that of comets in our solar system.
The findings suggest that ices within protoplanetary disks eventually clump together to form comets loaded with complex organic molecules, which may then be delivered to planets through collisions. This research supports the idea that comets played a big role in delivering important organic material to Earth billions of years ago, potentially helping life, including humans, form here.
The star HD 100453 is larger than the sun and has about 1.6 times its mass. The presence of methanol and other molecules in its disk exists as a gas farther from their home star than it would have been when our solar system was young.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/exoplanets/alcohol-soaked-star-system-could-help-explain-why-life-including-us-was-able-to-form