Washington, Nov 3 : Scientists have located areas in outer space that have extreme potential for complex organic molecules formation.

The scientists within the New York Centre for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found abundance of methanol, a key ingredient in the synthesis of organic molecules that could lead to life, in the located areas.

Their results have implications for determining the origins of molecules that spark life in the cosmos.

“Methanol formation is the major chemical pathway to complex organic molecules in interstellar space,” said the lead researcher of the study and director of the NASA-funded centre, Douglas Whittet of Rensselaer.

If scientists can identify regions where conditions are right for rich methanol production, they will be better able to understand where and how the complex organic molecules needed to create life are formed.

In other words, follow the methanol and you may be able to follow the chemistry that leads to life.

What Whittet and his collaborators have discovered is that methanol is most abundant around a very small number of newly formed stars.

They also discovered methanol for the first time in low concentrations (1 to 2 percent) in the cold clouds that will eventually give birth to new stars.

The scientists concluded that there is a “sweet spot” in the physical conditions surrounding some stars that accounts for the large discrepancy in methanol formation in the galaxy.

The findings will be published in the Nov. 20 edition of the Astrophysical Journal. (ANI)