News & Events

New Space Molecule Largest Ever Detected Using Radioastronomy

An asteroid has helped researchers discover the largest molecule ever detected by radioastronomy, and the third-largest identified in space.

Dr. Ilsa Cooke, assistant professor in the UBC department of chemistry, has co-authored the discovery which was published today in Science. The discovery, which is co-senior authored by Dr. Brett McGuire, assistant professor of chemistry at MIT, provides further clues to an astrochemical mystery: Where does carbon, the building block of life, come from and go to in the universe, including in our own solar system?

Read the discovery here.