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Something strange was hiding in the Horsehead. The nebula, named for its stallionlike silhouette, is a towering cloud of dust and gas 1,500 light-years from Earth where new stars are continually born. It is one of the most recognizable celestial objects, and scientists have studied it intensely. But in 2011 astronomers from the Institute of Millimeter Radioastronomy (IRAM) and elsewhere probed it again. With IRAM's 30-meter telescope in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, they homed in on two portions of the horse's mane in radio light. They weren't interested in taking more pictures of the Horsehead; instead, they were after spectra—readings of the light broken down into their constituent wavelengths, which reveal the chemical makeup of the nebula. Displayed on screen, the data looked like blips on a heart monitor; each wiggle indicated that some molecule in the nebula had emitted light of a particular wavelength.
Every molecule in the universe makes its own characteristic wiggles based on the orientation of the protons, neutrons and electrons within it. Most of the wiggles in the Horsehead data were easily attributable to common chemicals such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and neutral carbon. But there was also a small, unidentified line at 89.957 gigahertz. This was a mystery—a molecule completely unknown to science.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hunt-for-alien-molecules/
It has always amazed me that people can only imagine life, and matter, as it exists on earth. Given molecules that can't exist on earth, it is easy to imagine life forms that we might not even recognize as "alive". While some general laws of physics probably apply throughout the universe, we need to keep in mind that there may be exceptions to those laws, and that local conditions might twist the laws far outside our understanding. C3H+ ?? Who would have guessed!
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Shire on Sunday December 13 2015, @01:05AM
>>While some general laws of physics probably apply throughout the universe, we need to keep in mind that there may be exceptions to those laws
There is nothing supernatural about CH3+, it's a highly reactive ion that only exists in the horsehead nebula because there is so little chance for it to encounter something to react with. Given the tremendous amounts of ionizing radiation in space and in a nebula in particular, it's not at all surprising to find something like this.
There are no exceptions to the laws of physics anywhere in the universe - the moment the scientific community truly finds such an exception, the law is no longer a law. This is the difference between a scientific law vs a theory.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Sunday December 13 2015, @03:53AM
Further there was nothing in the story to hint of life, regardless of the editorializing in the bottom paragraph.
Propynylidynium, l-C3H+ The cation C3H+ is thought to play an important role in gas phase reactions in the interstellar medium that lead to the formation of small hydrocarbons. So its a precursor to a hydrocarbon at best, not a new form of life.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.