From finding organic molecules in distant stars to discovering water on the sunlit surface of the Moon, NASA\u2019s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is at the forefront of scientific research \u2014 especially when it comes to the potential for life either developing or being sustained on bodies other than Earth.<\/p>\n
The latest studies from SOFIA, both announced this month, confirm the presence of organics and water in protoplanetary discs around young, planet-forming stars as well as the detection of water molecules on the Sun-lit surface of the Moon \u2014 indicating that water may be distributed across the lunar surface and not limited to cold, shadowed places.<\/p>\n
Organics in distant stars<\/b><\/p>\n
In a paper published 8 October in the Astrophysical Journal<\/i>, scientists using data gathered by SOFIA discovered large quantities of water and organic molecules in swirly, dusty discs rotating around two massive newborn stars.<\/p>\n
The discovery offers a new understanding of how some of the key ingredients of life are incorporated into planets during the earliest stages of planetary system formation \u2014 a process that likely happened during the formation of the Sun and the inner rocky planets of our home solar system. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing many more molecular signatures than were ever seen before at these wavelengths,\u201d said Andrew Barr, the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Leiden University in the Netherlands. \u201cIt turns out that these stars are like chemical factories churning out molecules important for life as we know it, and we just needed the right kind of observations to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n
SOFIA observed clouds around two massive stars approximately 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus and the Juggler Nebula, respectively. These clouds are heated from the inside out and contain a chemical soup of organic molecules \u2014 including water, ammonia, methane, and acetylene: the chemical building blocks to larger and more complex organic molecules.<\/p>\n