Overview
- Researchers used JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument to analyze the young protostar ST6 in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away.
- They identified methanol, ethanol, methyl formate, acetaldehyde and acetic acid in the ice surrounding the protostar.
- Acetic acid is reported as the first conclusive detection of this molecule in space ice, and ethanol, methyl formate and acetaldehyde are first ice detections outside the Milky Way.
- Spectral features resembling glycolaldehyde were noted, but the team says the identification remains unconfirmed.
- The peer-reviewed findings appeared October 20 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the team plans further JWST observations to build a larger extragalactic sample and compare abundances with the Milky Way.