Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules

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Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules

Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules

Image illustrating the detection of molecules found by ALMA in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Astronomers using ALMA have uncovered chemical “fingerprints” of methanol, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The latter two molecules are the largest organic molecules ever conclusively detected outside the Milky Way. The far-infrared image on the left shows the full galaxy. The zoom-in image shows the star-forming region observed by ALMA. It is a combination of mid-infrared data from Spitzer and visible (H-alpha) data from the Blanco 4-meter telescope.

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); Herschel/ESA; NASA/JPL-Caltech; NOAO

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Telescope	ALMA; Spitzer; Blanco 4m

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Stellar Embryos in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Contain Surprisingly Complex Organic Molecules

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