Herschel Finds Possible Life-Enabling Molecules in Space

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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-077

Herschel Finds Possible Life-Enabling Molecules in Space
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
March 04, 2010

The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed the chemical fingerprints of
potentially life-enabling organic molecules in the Orion nebula, a
nearby stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. Herschel is led by the
European Space Agency with important participation from NASA.

The new data, obtained with the telescope's heterodyne instrument for
the far infrared -- one of Herschel's three innovative instruments --
demonstrates the gold mine of information that Herschel will provide on
how organic molecules form in space.

The Orion nebula is known to be one of the most prolific chemical
factories in space, although the full extent of its chemistry and the
pathways for molecule formation are not well understood. By sifting
through the pattern of spikes in the new data, called a spectrum,
astronomers have identified a few common molecules that are precursors
to life-enabling molecules, including water, carbon monoxide,
formaldehyde, methanol, dimethyl ether, hydrogen cyanide, sulfur oxide
and sulfur dioxide.

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science
instruments provided by a consortia of European institutes and with
important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL contributed
mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science
instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared
Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, supports the United States astronomical community. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu/ and
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html .