Something never seen before in the universe appeared in the middle of the Cat's Paw Nebula

The Cat's Paw Nebula is a mysterious "star nursery" 5,500 light years from Earth .

According to Live Science, researchers have identified a new, unusually large molecule that has never been recorded in the universe before, called 2-methoxyethanol , existing in the middle of the Cat's Paw Nebula.

The Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 63341) is a giant cloud of gas and dust that serves as a cosmic "stellar nursery", the birthplace of what could be the center of new planetary systems.

Cat's Paw Nebula - (Photo: NASA).

Understanding how simple organic molecules like methane, ethanol and formaldehyde form helps scientists build a picture not only of how stars and galaxies are born but also how life begins. What is the head like?

However, discovering these basic building blocks of life is not easy. Each molecule possesses a unique energy 'barcode' , a set of specific wavelengths of light that the molecule can absorb.

This "barcode" can be easily detected for samples in the laboratory, but astrochemists then have to find this same energy signature in space.

A team of authors led by astrochemist Zachary Fried from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - USA) conducted a similar search using a radio telescope.

When they turned their instruments toward the Cat's Paw Nebula, they discovered 2-methoxyethanol, a 13-atom molecule.

It has a basic structure similar to ethanol but one of ethanol's hydrogen atoms (C₂H₆O) is replaced by a more complex methoxy group (O–CH _{3 ).}

This unusual level of complexity is very rare outside the solar system. Previously, only six types of molecules with more than 13 atoms had ever been discovered.

Molecules possessing simpler methoxyl groups have also been discovered in the Cat's Paw Nebula and IRAS 16293 - a binary system of at least two protostars forming in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud population - located far from Earth. 457 light years.

The team hopes these findings can inform future studies to identify other molecules yet to be detected in space.

The discovery of highly complex organic molecules in the universe played a large role in building the foundation for searches for alien life, as well as explaining our own origins.

Based on the most recent evidence, complex organic molecules - many of which could be the building blocks of early life - could well form in the harsh interstellar space.

This means, they are available in stellar nurseries and are always ready to be incorporated into the raw materials to create new star systems .

Finally, when a planet favorable to life is born, these wandering molecules can follow comets and asteroids to land.

Most likely, life on Earth began like that.