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takyon writes:

A "biomarker" molecule presumed to indicate the presence of industrial or biological activity has been found to be naturally occurring in interstellar clouds:

A molecule once thought to be a useful marker for life as we know it has been discovered around a young star and at a comet for the first time, suggesting these ingredients are inherited during the planet-forming phase.

The discovery of methyl chloride was made by the ground-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft following Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. It is the simplest member of a class of molecules known as organohalogens, which contain halogens, such as chlorine or fluorine, bonded with carbon.

Methyl chloride is well known on Earth as being used in industry. It is also produced naturally by biological and geological activity: it is the most abundant organohalogen in Earth's atmosphere, with up to three megatonnes produced a year, primarily from biological processes.

As such, it had been identified as a possible 'biomarker' in the search for life at exoplanets. This has been called into question, however, now it is seen in environments not derived from living organisms, and instead as a raw ingredient from which planets could eventually form.

This is also the first time an organohalogen has been detected in space, indicating that halogen- and carbon-centred chemistries are more intertwined than previously thought.

Also at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Protostellar and cometary detections of organohalogens (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41550-017-0237-7) (DX)

Original Submission