Discovery of methanol in a ’warm’ planet-forming disk

Discovery of methanol in a 'warm' planet-forming disk Astronomers have identified the molecule methanol in the 'warm zones' of a protoplanetary disk circling a star about 360 light years from Earth. The finding is significant because although methanol - CH3OH - is one of the simpler complex carbon-based molecules, it is a precursor chemical involved in the creation of more complex substances such as amino acids and proteins, the building blocks of life. The methanol was identified by an international team of astronomers, including scientists from the University of Leeds, studying a star known as HD 100546 and its protoplanetary disk, the swirling dust and gas from which a planet is born. They are about 10 million years old and located in the direction of the southern constellation of the Fly (Musca). The study - An inherited complex organic molecule reservoir in a warm planet-hosting disk - has been published Astronomy. The astronomers say the methanol could not have formed in the warm zones of the disk, where temperatures are in excess of 20 Kelvin (-253 degrees Centigrade). Instead, they believe it was created as the protoplanetary disk formed when the dust and gas clouds were cooler.