The discovery proves that the conditions that birthed life on Earth are present in other regions of the cosmos as well

Apr 10, 2015 08:18 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan made headlines when, during a panel discussion, she announced that she was convinced that we would find definite proof of alien life within the next couple of decades.

True, Ellen Stofan was chiefly thinking about finding alien life on other celestial bodies here in our Solar System. Celestial bodies that appear to be hiding oceans under their surface, to be more precise.

Still, it looks like there might be alien life way beyond our cosmic home. Thus, in a new study in the journal Nature, astronomers announce the discovery of chemical building blocks of life around a nearby star.

Introducing MWC 480, possibly a young Sun

The star that astronomers believe could one day become a new Sun and foster the emergence of life on a nearby planet goes by the name of MWC 480. It sits about 445 light-years away from us and is now surrounded by a dense cloud of gas and dust.

It is within this massive cloud of gas and dust, known as a protoplanetary disk, that researchers with the European Southern Observatory claim to have detected the presence of the chemical building blocks of life.

Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists behind this investigation explain that, according to data delivered by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, MWC 480's protoplanetary disk holds methyl cyanide and hydrogen cyanide.

Both these compounds are complex organic molecules. The reason their discovery around MWC 480 is grabbing headlines is that they pack carbon-nitrogen bonds needed to form amino acids, which in turn can form proteins.

Since MWC 480 is fairly young, the protoplanetary disk around it has not yet clumped to form be it at least one planet, let alone an Earth-like world. Still, what with the presence of complex organic molecules around this star, there is no telling what the future might bring.

Proof of alien life in the distant cosmos, sort of

Admittedly, a bunch of organic molecules swirling around a star do not proof of alien life make. However, this doesn't mean that the discovery does not count for something.

The discovery of methyl cyanide and hydrogen cyanide in the protoplanetary disk surrounding MWC 480 indicates that the conditions that spawned life on our planet likely exist elsewhere in the universe as well. Hence, alien life is possible.

“We now have even better evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own,” explains study lead author Karin Öberg.