![Ka = 0 rotational transitions of HNCOH+ identified towards G+0.693 and sorted by increasing frequency (see also Table B.1). The LTE fit of HNCOH+ is plotted with a red line, while the blue line depicts the emission from all the molecules identified to date in our survey, including HNCOH+ (observed spectra shown as gray histograms). The molecular structure of HNCOH+ is shown in the bottom right. The quantum numbers of each rotational transition (J + 1 → J) are indicated in the upper left of each panel. Blue labels show the rest of identified species contributing to the observed spectra.-- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Detection.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.GA] Only five out of the ∼350 molecules detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) carry the isocyanate functional group (NCO), the essential substructure of peptide bonds in proteins. Among them […]
astrochemistry
Posted inPanspermia
Comets Probably Didn’t Seed Life On Earth After All, New Study Suggests
[University of Cambridge]. Comets didn’t seed life on Earth after all, a new study suggests, potentially overturning a century-old idea.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Single-Molecule Studies Reveal That Water Starts to Protect Proteins Even At The ppm Level
[ACS Nano] A consensus established by extensive thermodynamic and structural studies of proteins and DNA is that water acts as an indispensable structural cofactor rather than a passive solvent for […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
Complex Organic Molecules In Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) VIII. First Interstellar Detection Of Fully Deuterated Methyl Cyanide
[astro-ph.GA] Deuteration is a powerful metric to gain insight into the formation pathways of interstellar molecules in star forming regions.
Posted inAstrogeology
JWST/MIRI Observations of Amorphous Silicates In Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
[astro-ph.EP] We present JWST/MIRI Low Resolution Spectroscopy (LRS) of 3I/ATLAS obtained post-perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 2.21 au.
Posted inComets and Asteroids
Webb Space Telescope Used To Compare Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS With Icy Bodies In Our Solar System
[SwRI] A Southwest Research Institute-led study used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system […]
2026 LPL Evening Lecture Series: Dr. Dante Lauretta: Bennu’s Ancient Waters: Asteroid Samples and the Chemical Origins of Life
Nov. 4, 2026, 7 – 8 p.m. Where Kuiper Space Sciences, Room 308 and Zoom Dr. Dante Lauretta Regents Professor, Department of Planetary Sciences Director, Arizona Astrobiology Center University of […]
STScI James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Summer School II
The STScI James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Summer School II — from August 2 to 13, 2027 — will focus on exoplanet transits, eclipses, and phase curves with JWST. Early […]
![Left. Two-dimensional UMAP representation of the TMC-1 inventory using the original ChemBERTa input vectors. Right. Same representation but using the last hidden layer of the neural netwok model. The red rectangle highlights the region of the UMAP representation where highly abundant molecules are located. The different dot sizes represent the observed column density of each molecule. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/A-neural.png?resize=1200%2C725&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
A Neural-network Model To Find Correlations In Astrochemical Space
[astro-ph.GA] The detection of new interstellar molecules is central to astrochemistry, and arguably the most transformative development in the field in past decade has been the increase in both number […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
The First Selection Of Optimal Targets For The Lazuli ExtraSolar Coronagraph’s Reflected Starlight Exoplanet Campaign
[astro-ph.EP] Direct detection and characterization of exoplanet atmospheres via reflected starlight enables probes of composition of mature exoplanet systems (since flux is decoupled from age) at closer separations than via […]