Astrochemistry
July 7, 2011
European scientists have found evidence of molecules of hydrogen peroxide within frozen clouds of gas and cosmic dust 400 light years away.
Their results, published in the July issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, highlighted the discovery in a region of our galaxy where a molecular cloud called Rho Ophiuchi is found.
The molecules were discovered through the use of the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope (APEX), sitting 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile. APEX observes light at millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelengths, which are ideal for detecting the signals from these molecules.
APEX is a shared telescope between the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden, and the European Southern Observatory.
The team recorded the characteristic signature of light emitted by hydrogen peroxide coming from part of the extremely cold (-250 degrees Celsius), dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust in which new stars are being born.
Unanswered questions
"We don't understand yet how some of the most important molecules here on Earth are made in space," said Bérengère Parise in a statement.
The French researcher is based at the Max Planck Institute, and is one of the paper's co-authors.
"But our discovery of hydrogen peroxide with APEX seems to be showing us that cosmic dust is the missing ingredient in the process," she added.
The presence of hydrogen peroxide is significant because it is so closely related to two other important molecules, water and oxygen.
The discovery goes towards answering one of the pressing questions that scientists have been asking: where can we find water elsewhere in the universe?
Vindication
It's a question that Ewine van Dishoeck, an astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands has been trying to answer through her work with the Herschel Space Observatory.
"I see it as a vindication of theories from the 1980s," van Dishoeck told Deutsche Welle.
She said simulations have been predicting the creation of molecular bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms on the surface of the tiny grains of cosmic dust within these frigid clouds.
Between the data from APEX and the Herschel Space Observatory, van Dishoeck said this is a very exciting time for the field of research into space water. At Herschel, she said, the search continues for another missing ingredient, molecular oxygen.
Author: Stuart Tiffen
Editor: Cyrus Farivar