The molecule is a precursor to organic molecules, which can be associated with life.
This image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array shows dust trapped in the disk surrounding the system Oph-IRS 48. "From these results, we can learn more about the origin of life on our planet, and therefore get a better idea of the potential for life in other planetary systems," lead author Nashanty Brunken, a master's student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, said in areleased on Wednesday by the European Southern Observatory .
The disk surrounding Oph-IRS 48 has already been the subject of several studies looking at how dust clumps and eventually forms into small worlds like comets and asteroids; scientists believe that these worlds in turn form larger worlds like moons or planets. Molecules are shown in the disc of Oph-IRS 48, a young star, in observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array .The new observations mark the first time that scientists have identified dimethyl ether — or any other molecule containing nine atoms — in one of these disks. The researchers hope that the new results open the door to detecting other complex organic molecules in planetary disks.
"What makes this even more exciting is that we now know these larger complex molecules are available to feed forming planets in the disk," Alice Booth, an astrochemist also at Leiden Observatory."This was not known before as in most systems these molecules are hidden in the ice."