Astronomers found an exotic form of alcohol around baby stars for the first time

Using the ALMA telescope in Chile, an international team in the COMPASS program detected fully deuterated methanol — a rare 'heavy' version of the simplest alcohol, with all its hydrogen atoms swapped for deuterium — around the very young star IRAS 4A2 in the Perseus cloud, 1,000 light-years away. It is the first time this molecule has ever been spotted in space, and it suggests that planets inherit a surprisingly sophisticated chemical starter kit. The results appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics.