Contributor: Lianis V. Reyes Rosa

A recent study led by T.J. McCoy at the National Museum of Natural History analyzed particles returned from the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu and found evidence of the building blocks of life preserved within them.

Contributor: Nina Kessler, PhD

Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely known for its use in generative models to produce text or images; however, in recent years, it is increasingly used and exploited in astrophysics to speed up the analysis of large amounts of data. But how can this technology help us study the chemistry of the interstellar medium? Artificial neural networks (ANNs), a subclass of AI, are inspired by the brain’s neuronal network. Such a network can statistically find relationships between input and output data to constrain a model that meets our needs.

Contributor: Dr. Kotomi Taniguchi

A team of researchers led by Dr. Kotomi Taniguchi from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Dr. Prasanta Gorai from the University of Oslo have studied the “missing middle” of the formation of medium-size baby stars.

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.