Astronomers have discovered a rare form of methanol, a type of alcohol, in a planet-forming disk around the star HD 100453. This finding provides crucial information about the chemical composition of ice in disks that form planets and what organic molecules are available for comets to deliver.
The discovery is significant because it reveals vital details about how life beyond Earth may form. Methanol was previously detected in several star-forming disks, but detecting its rare isotopes confirms that these disks are rich in complex organic molecules not yet identified.
Led by Dr. Alice Booth of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian, the research team used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect the methanol isotopes around HD 100453. The star has a mass about 1.6 times that of the sun and is located about 330 light-years from Earth.
The warmer disk around HD 100453 enabled ALMA to detect the methanol isotopes, which are 10-100 times less abundant than the molecule itself. This suggests that the ice in planet-forming disks contains a rich reservoir of inherited complex organic molecules.
The discovery is also consistent with the idea that comets may have played a significant role in delivering important organic material to Earth billions of years ago. The team’s findings support this theory, which proposes that comets brought simple amino acids and sugars such as glycine and glycolaldehyde to our planet.
The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and provides new insights into the history of ingredients necessary to build life on Earth.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-06-key-block-life-planet-disk.html