Sweet Cosmic - Giving A Ray Of Hope To Life Supporting Celestial Body

[Ananya 0]

In the constellation of Ophiuchus lying 400 light years away, a young star called IRAS which is a part of a binary(2-star system) and bears a mass similar to that of our sun, sugar molecules have been found in the gas surrounding the star. The sugar molecule known as glycolaldehyde is a vital life ingredient as it can react with a substance called propenal to form ribose a central item of ribonucleic acid(RNA).These molecules were earlier detected in interstellar space but its for the first time they have been spotted so close to a sunlike star.Each of these molecules emit a distictive band of radio wavelength that is used as a fingerprint for the origin of these molecules.Researchers used ALMA( Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) that has extremely sensitive radio wave receiving device that are capable of capturing extremelyshort wavelength.

[sheepdog 10]

"In the constellation of Ophiuchus lying 400 light years away"Interesting articule, but I'm curious, how did they determin the presense of sugar molecules somewhere that far away? How could they get any kind of information from something that distant?