WASHINGTON – Researchers have found an organic molecule essential to biology in interstellar space for the first time, announced experts Tuesday, a discovery that could help solve a long-time mystery. The recently discovered interstellar molecule is the most complex ever discovered outside our solar system, and the first chiral molecule detected in interstellar space. Larger, more complex molecules have more complicated vibration patterns, making them more difficult to identify. Scientists have found chiral molecules in meteorites on Earth and comets in our solar system, but never before in interstellar space. Like humans, the organic molecules that make up the universe can lean left-handed or right-handed, a preference known as chirality.

Source: National Post June 15, 2016 14:37 UTC