James Webb Space Telescope spots crucial carbon molecule for the first time

The James Webb Space Telescope makes for a perfect observatory of the protoplanetary disk containing the compound due to its incredible resolution, but also because of its sensitivity, which is capable of identifying several key emission lines from CH3+, which was essential to properly identifying the chemical compound in the planetary disk.

“This detection not only validates the incredible sensitivity of Webb but also confirms the postulated central importance of CH₃⁺ in interstellar chemistry,” Marie-Aline Martin-Drumel, a member of the science team from the University of Paris-Saclay in France, said in a NASA statement.

Crucially, the protoplanetary disk orbits a small red dwarf star, which on its own does not produce a large amount of UV radiation. UV radiation is known to break down organic molecules, but given the star system's location within the larger nebula, there are a large number of larger young stars that are producing a lot of UV that is bombarding the red dwarf system.

The researchers think that while the radiation might degrade some organic compounds, it is also what is supplying the energy needed for methyl cation to form in the first place.

Unfortunately, the disk itself seems to have very little in the way of water, which would ultimately inhibit the formation of life as we know it.

“This clearly shows that ultraviolet radiation can completely change the chemistry of a protoplanetary disk. It might actually play a critical role in the early chemical stages of the origins of life,” said Olivier Berné, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Toulouse who led a study on the discovery published in the journal Nature.