Propylene oxide molecule discovered in interstellar space
Like a pair of human hands, some organic molecules have mirror-image versions of themselves, a chemical property known as chirality. These so-called 'hands' molecules are essential to biology. Similar patterns have been found in meteorites on Earth and comets in our solar system. However, no one has yet been able to detect them in the vast flow of interstellar space.
Using highly sensitive radio telescopes, the team was able to detect complex organic chiral molecules in interstellar space for the first time. A propylene oxide molecule (CH3CHOCH2) was found near the center of our galaxy in a huge cloud of dust and gas known as Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2).
'This is the first molecule found in interstellar space to be chiral, which allows us to take a step further in our understanding of how molecules are created in the universe. We can also study the effects that they can have on the origin of life, 'said chemist Brett McGuire and Jansky postdoctoral fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in the United States.
“Propylene oxide is one of the most complex and intricate structural molecules found in space to date,” said Brandon Carroll, a chemistry graduate student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. 'The discovery of this molecule opens the door to further experiments defining how and where molecular chirality occurs and why one form may be slightly larger than the other.'
