Astronomers at UrFU have made a breakthrough discovery in space.

      Scientists from the Laboratory of Astrochemistry at Ural Federal University have made an important discovery: they found “laughing gas” — nitrous oxide (N2O) — in interstellar ices. The results were published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, and the research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation. Photo: a photograph of a protostar in the dark cloud L1527 taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The protostar is inside a cloud of material feeding its growth. Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI / Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton Koekemoer (STScI)

      Nitrous oxide was detected in the ices near 16 protostars out of 50 studied. Its abundance ranged from 0.2% to 2.1% relative to CO ice. This is the first reliable confirmation that N2O is indeed present in interstellar ices and occurs there fairly widely.

      More than 300 molecules are already known in the gas phase of interstellar clouds, but finding them in ices is much more difficult — until now scientists had been able to confidently identify only eight. Nitrous oxide is now the ninth such molecule. Researchers also reported preliminary signs of another molecule — isocyanic acid (HNCO).

      To identify N2O, the team compared James Webb Space Telescope data with laboratory spectra of ice grown on the ISEAge setup. This helped to accurately interpret the observations and confirm the finding.

      The discovery is important because nitrous oxide can react more readily at very low temperatures than molecular nitrogen (N2). It can participate in the formation of more complex nitrogen-containing compounds — including those from which amino acids could later form.

      Interestingly, half of the protostars with detected N2O are located in the Orion A star-forming region. Scientists suggest that strong ultraviolet radiation in this region may influence the formation of this molecule, but the exact mechanisms remain to be determined.

      * Protostar — a young star in the process of formation, surrounded by gas and dust.

      Interstellar ice — a thin icy mantle on particles of cosmic dust in cold clouds. Reactions can occur in it that help create more complex molecules potentially important for the origin of life.