Overview

• A team led by Abubakar Fadul at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy used ALMA to identify 17 distinct complex organic molecules in the disk of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis.
• Ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile were tentatively detected for the first time, representing crucial precursors to amino acids and nucleobases.
• Energetic accretion outbursts from the protostar heat icy grains, releasing buried organics and enabling ALMA’s detection in regions that would otherwise remain frozen.
• The findings suggest that protoplanetary disks inherit complex molecules from earlier interstellar stages and sustain prebiotic chemistry during planet formation.
• Researchers are now analyzing higher-resolution ALMA data to confirm the tentative signatures and expand the molecular inventory by probing additional spectral bands.