In the recent research done by using the James Webb Telescope, in March 2024, scientists found that ethanol and other icy organic compounds near protostars IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. The findings were published in the JOYS+ program. It can offer insights into the cosmic chemistry that can help in knowing the formation of the planet and the potential for life on it. This also suggests how the building blocks in life can travel in space. The scientists observed alcohol in the orbit of a young star, adding to the understanding of life on Earth.

Methanol and Its Isotopes Detected Around Star HD 100453

As per the recent study conducted by NASA’s JWST, Methanol and its isotopes have been found in gases around the star called HD 100453. It is about 330 light years away from our planet. It has been observed for the first time that scientists have found isotopes of methanol in the shape of a disk. This was reported on June 5, 2025, in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Methanol: A Building Block of Life

Methanol acts as a building block for organic compounds like amino acids, which are essential for life. Researchers had found that methanol, but not the rare isotopes, is star-forming structures. These isotopes of methanol give a valuable insight into the ingredients needed for building life on Earth.

HD 100453: A Star Bigger Than the Sun

HD 100453 is larger than the Sun, with more than 1.6 times the mass of the Sun. This signals that methanol and other molecules in the disk exist as gas and farther from the home star, which could be the case when the solar system was quite young. The smaller stars consist of cooler disks, and the molecules are frozen and undetectable.

Link Between Methanol and Comet Chemistry

The researchers found that the ratio of methanol to other organic molecules is similar to that of the comets in the solar system. The findings signal that the ices near the protoplanetary disks clump to form comets filled with organic molecules, which are the result of collisions. This research gives the idea that comets may have played a major role in offering important organic material to the Earth billions of years ago.

Two spectacular stellar nurseries—the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae—have been revealed in dazzling detail in one of the first public images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Located 4,000 light-years from Earth, these distant clouds of gas and dust mark the debut of the observatory’s scientific capabilities. Released during a livestream on June 23, the images offer a vivid preview of what the observatory will capture over the next decade from its high-altitude post atop Cerro Pachón in Chile’s Andes, using the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to explore cosmic evolution.

Rubin Observatory to Scan Southern Sky Every 3 Nights, Mapping Galaxies and Dark Matter

As per observatory director Željko Ivezić, the image sets demonstrate the facility’s wide field of view and ability to operate in the “time domain”—detecting changes in space over time. During a watch party in Washington, D.C., Ivezić noted the diversity of celestial objects captured, from nearby bright stars to distant red elliptical galaxies. At a June 9 briefing, Princeton University astronomer Yusra AlSayyad described the Rubin Observatory’s advanced image processing and its role in enabling rapid discovery across vast sky segments.

The observatory, which over the next decade will take in the whole southern sky every three or four nights, features a giant self-adjusting telescope as well as a car-size digital camera, the largest ever built. About 1,000 images will be taken nightly during each 30-second exposure. This quick cadence gives scientists the ability to detect millions of transient objects, such as asteroids, supernovae, and possibly unknown phenomena as they happen.

Along the way, the observatory is also going to help map out galaxies and star systems and the distribution of dark matter, an invisible material that makes up about 85 percent of the mass of the universe. The observatory is named for the astronomer Vera Rubin, who gathered crucial data proving the existence of dark matter in the 1970s. “We are hopeful that we will be gathering more data later this year after construction is done.”

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, and the Rubin Observatory, promise to transform the field of astronomy. The project, as telescope scientist Sandrine Thomas says, is poised to revolutionise cosmic research, and it’s going to bring the general public along, in real time, for the story of the universe as it happens.