Rotating ring of organic molecules discovered around newborn star: Japanese researchers

Researchers in Japan have discovered a rotating ring containing large organic molecules around a newborn star, showing that organic materials formed in interstellar space are brought into the planet-forming region.

"These saturated organic molecules are formed in interstellar space and are preserved on the surfaces of dust grains," said a release issued on Tuesday by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. "Around the outer boundary of the disk structure, they evaporate due to shock generated by collisions of the disk and infalling material, and/or due to heating by the light from the baby star."

This result is the first direct evidence that interstellar organic materials are indeed fed into the rotating disk structure that eventually forms a planetary system, said the release.

The researchers also found that the molecular species brought into the planet-forming region vary from one protostar to another. Chemical composition is a new way to answer the long-standing question of whether or not the Solar System is a typical example of a planetary system.

An international team lead by Yoko Oya, a graduate student of Department of Physics, the University of Tokyo, and Nami Sakai, an associate chief scientist of Japan's research institution RIKEN, studied the distribution of various organic molecules around a Solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422A at a high spatial resolution. Endit