NASA discovers the building blocks of life were forged in starlight

Ultraviolet light from stars crucial to formation of organic molecules needed to create life, study finds

CBC News Posted: Oct 13, 2016 1:07 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 13, 2016 5:27 PM ET

Excerpt
Before now, it was theorized that CH and CH+ — the first organic molecules discovered in interstellar space — were the result of shock waves from so-called traumatic events, like exploding supernovae or young stars spitting out jets of gas. 

The theory was that shock waves would cause the material they encountered to vibrate, and that those vibrations would knock electrons off atoms, leaving them ionized and more likely to bond together to form more complex molecules.

Life born from light, not shock 

But data from Herschel shows no correlation between shock events and the presence of those molecules.

"These CH+ molecules were more likely created by the ultraviolet emission of very young stars in the Orion Nebula, which, compared to the sun, are hotter, far more massive and emit much more ultraviolet light," NASA explains.

"When a molecule absorbs a photon of light, it becomes 'excited' and has more energy to react with other particles. In the case of a hydrogen molecule, the hydrogen molecule vibrates, rotates faster or both when hit by an ultraviolet photon."

This excited hydrogen reacts with carbons that originally formed in stars to create CH+ and CH, the scientists conclude. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nasa-building-blocks-carbon-ultraviolet-starlight-orion-nebula-1.3803079