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The European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced that observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submilimeter Array (ALMA) have detected methyl cyanide and hydrogen cyanide in the protoplanetary disk around the young star MW480.
From the ESO press release:
For the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. The discovery, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), reaffirms that the conditions that spawned the Earth and Sun are not unique in the Universe. The results are published in the 9 April 2015 issue of the journal Nature.
The new ALMA observations reveal that the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star MWC 480 contains large amounts of methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a complex carbon-based molecule. There is enough methyl cyanide around MWC 480 to fill all of Earth's oceans.
Both this molecule and its simpler cousin hydrogen cyanide (HCN) were found in the cold outer reaches of the star's newly formed disc, in a region that astronomers believe is analogous to the Kuiper Belt — the realm of icy planetesimals and comets in our own Solar System beyond Neptune.
The paper [Full] provides more details about this discovery, for example: "The presence of cyanides in comets, including 0.01% of methyl cyanide (CH3CN) with respect to water, is of special interest because of the importance of C-N bonds for abiotic amino acid synthesis."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2015, @08:21AM
Unless of course there is a great filter [wikipedia.org] and the probability of intelligent life eradicating itself approaches one as time increases.
It doesn't matter if this probability exists elsewhere in the Universe. It absolutely exists on Earth. And we're not just set on extinguishing "intelligent" life, we've got our sights set on all other species of life and the planet as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2015, @03:18PM
Not really. I'm pretty sure we'll not manage to kill off all the bacteria on the planet. Kill all plants and algae? No problem, then anaerobic bacteria will take over.
And I'm absolutely sure that we are not able to destroy the planet itself. Even detonating all nuclear bombs at the same time would affect only the surface of the planet.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday April 10 2015, @03:32PM
Oh, it can be done, but it ain't easy. Oblig Mundicide link: http://qntm.org/destroy [qntm.org]