Like a pair of human hands, certain organic
molecules2 have mirror-image versions of themselves, a chemical property known as chirality. These so-called "handed" molecules are essential for biology and have
intriguingly3 been found in
meteorites4 on Earth and comets in our Solar System. None, however, has been detected in the vast reaches of interstellar space, until now. A team of scientists using highly sensitive radio telescopes has discovered the first complex organic chiral
molecule1 in interstellar space. The molecule, propylene
oxide5 (CH3CHOCH2), was found near the center of our
Galaxy6 in an enormous star-forming cloud of dust and gas known as Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2).
The research was undertaken primarily with the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia as part of the Prebiotic Interstellar
Molecular7 Survey. Additional supporting observations were taken with the Parkes radio telescope in Australia.
"This is the first molecule detected in interstellar space that has the property of chirality, making it a pioneering leap forward in our understanding of how prebiotic molecules are made in the Universe and the effects they may have on the origins of life," said Brett McGuire, a chemist and Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow with the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory8 (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"Propylene oxide is among the most complex and
structurally9 intricate molecules detected so far in space," said Brandon Carroll, a chemistry graduate student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Detecting this molecule opens the door for further experiments determining how and where molecular handedness emerges and why one form may be slightly more abundant than the other."
McGuire and Carroll share first authorship on a paper published today in the journal Science. They also are presenting their results at the American
Astronomical10 Society meeting in San Diego, California.