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MIT scientists recently examined an area of space referred to as the Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 (TMC-1) and unearthed over 100 distinct molecules drifting in the gas present — more than in any other identified interstellar cloud. They employed powerful radio telescopes adept at detecting extremely weak signals across an extensive array of wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum.

With upwards of 1,400 hours of observation on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) — the largest fully movable radio telescope globally, situated in West Virginia — researchers from Brett McGuire‘s group amassed the astronomical information necessary to hunt for molecules in deep space and have rendered the complete dataset publicly accessible. From these observations, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS), the team cataloged 102 molecules in TMC-1, a frigid interstellar cloud where sun-like stars come into existence. The majority of these molecules are hydrocarbons (composed solely of carbon and hydrogen) and nitrogen-heavy compounds, in contrast to the oxygen-rich molecules located around forming stars. Significantly, they also identified 10 aromatic molecules (circular carbon structures), which constitute a small yet important fraction of the carbon in the cloud.

“This initiative represents the unprecedented amount of telescope time dedicated to a molecular line survey that has been processed and publicly shared thus far, allowing the community to chase discoveries pertaining to biologically significant organic matter,” remarked Ci Xue, a postdoctoral researcher in the McGuire Group and the main investigator of the project. “This molecular inventory sets a new standard for the initial chemical circumstances involved in star and planet formation.”

To manage the substantial dataset, the researchers developed an automated system to categorize and interpret the findings. Utilizing sophisticated statistical approaches, they calculated the quantities of each molecule present, including variations containing slightly different atoms (such as carbon-13 or deuterium).

“The data we are unveiling here represent the result of over 1,400 hours of observational effort on the GBT, one of the NSF’s leading radio telescopes,” states McGuire, the Class of 1943 Career Development Associate Professor of Chemistry. “In 2021, this data prompted the initial identification of individual PAH molecules in space, resolving a mystery that has lasted three decades, going back to the 1980s. In the subsequent years, significantly more and larger PAHs have surfaced within this data, demonstrating that there is indeed a vast and diverse supply of this reactive organic carbon at the nascent phases of star and planet creation. There remains an abundance of science, and numerous new molecular findings, to be uncovered with this data, but our team strongly believes that datasets like this should be accessible to the scientific community, which is why we’re making the fully calibrated, processed, science-ready product freely available for all.”

Overall, this research delivers the largest publicly shared molecular line survey to date, empowering the scientific community to pursue discoveries of biologically pertinent molecules. This molecular inventory provides a new framework for comprehending the chemical environments that exist prior to the formation of stars and planets.

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