Life beyond solar system possible: Study

Berlin: A team of scientists have claimed that life beyond the solar system is possible.

The team said it detected "large amounts of methyl cyanide (CH3CN)" in "the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star MWC 480".

According to the experts participating in the research project, ''the discovery is key, since that molecule contains links between carbon and nitrogen atoms.''

These chemical links "are essential" to the formation of amino acids which, in turn, are basic components of proteins and therefore "are essential for building life".

Both the methyl cyanide molecule and its simpler cousin, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), were found "in the cold outer reaches of the star's newly formed disc around MWC 480, a star 10 times bigger than the Sun and about 455 light years from Earth in the Tauro star-spawning formation”.

''We now have even better evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own," Karin Oberg, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lead author of the new paper, said.

If the chemical environment that spawned Earth and other planets made possible the appearance of life and these conditions are present in other parts of the universe, it is logical to think that there may be life beyond the Solar System, the study said.

"Once more," Oberg said, "we have learned that we're not special. From a life in the universe point of view, this is great news."

(With Agency inputs)