Contributor: Abubakar Fadul

Astrochemist Abubakar M. A. Fadul and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany have detected complex organic molecules (COMs) around the young star, V883 Ori, providing strong evidence that rich organic chemistry occurs at early stages of a star’s evolution. The team also reports tentative detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile, molecules regarded as precursors of sugars and nucleic acid building blocks.

Contributor: Dr. Yassin Jaziri

About 124 light-years away from Earth lies the planet K2-18 b. This exoplanet orbits its star in the “habitable zone,” where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist. Orbiting a red dwarf star, K2-18 b is larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, with average temperatures around 300K, or 80 °F. It is often referred to as a “sub-Neptune” These planets are among the most common in our galaxy, yet their nature remains poorly understood. As a potentially life-friendly world, the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) Cycle 1 GO Program 2722 lead by  personal investigator Nikku Madhusudhan, brought K2-18 b back into the spotlight, bringing better insight into the actual composition and structure.

Contributor: Amanda Alvarado-Torres

Over the past decade, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revolutionized our understanding of protoplanetary disks— the gas and dust around young stars and the raw materials that eventually form planetary systems like our own.

Contributor: Dr. Mélisse Bonfand

Led by Dr. Prasanta Gorai, a team of astrochemists studied an isolated massive star and uncovered a remarkably rich and complex chemical environment. Using observations from a powerful radio telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile, researchers uncovered a mix of molecules and used them as “chemical fingerprints” to learn more about how the star is growing.

Contributor: Dr. Angèle Taillard

Researchers at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, Spain, led by Asunción Fuente, believe they have identified in which form sulfur is concealed in the galaxy. Just as flour is vital for baking, sulfur plays a key role in building life’s ingredients -- and now, we might finally know where it’s been hiding.

Contributor: Amanda Alvarado-Torres

Before the James Webb Space Telescope, The Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) was one of the first missions that allowed astrochemists to probe the far-IR field. Operating in wavelengths longer than JWST’s, Herschel was able to pierce into the coldest, darkest parts of the universe.

Contributor: Lucille Steffes

Imagine peering into the cold, dark corners of space, where stars are just beginning to flicker into existence. It is in these cosmic nurseries where key chemical species formaldehyde (H₂CO) and methanol (CH₃OH) are forged. These precursor molecules are vital ingredients for brewing the more complex organic molecules that are essential to understanding how life might have originated on Earth or, perhaps, elsewhere in the universe.

Contributor: Dr. Mélisse Bonfand

Astronomers have uncovered a treasure trove of young stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Revealed not by their light, these stars were discovered due to the telltale glow of a molecule better known on Earth for its sweet, fruity scent: methyl formate.

Contributor: Dr. Brielle Shope

When people think of space, they often picture a vast, empty void. But space is far from empty. The interstellar medium (ISM)—the gas and dust that fills the space between stars—is rich with the ingredients for stars, planets, and possibly life itself. These tiny grain particles are like cosmic laboratories, where complex molecules form and evolve. Now, with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists can peer into these hidden regions of space to uncover the secrets of ice species, the frozen building blocks of chemistry in space.