Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2024

MAY-JUNE 2024 by NASA/ESA/CSA − Bethany Downer & Christine Pulliam Webb finds key ingredients for potentially habitable planets W hat do margaritas, vine- gar, and ant stings have in common? They contain chemical ingredients that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has identified surrounding two young protostars known as IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. Although planets are not yet forming around those stars, T he above image was taken by MIRI (the Mid-Infrared Instrument) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a region near the protostar known as IRAS 23385. The image is a single exposure at a wavelength of 15 microns which has been assigned an orange color. With MIRI’s unprecedented spectral resolution and sensitivity, the JOYS+ (James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars) pro- gram individually identified organic molecules that have been confirmed to be present in interstellar ices. This includes the detection of acetaldehyde, ethanol, methyl formate, and likely acetic acid, in the solid phase. [NASA, ESA, CSA, W.R.M. Rocha (LEI)]