JWST Detects New Carbon Compound

July 5, 2023

In This Week @NASA, an international team of scientists used the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. The molecule, known as methyl cation, is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules. Carbon compounds form the foundations of all known life and could help scientists understand how life developed on Earth, and how it could potentially develop elsewhere in the universe. Also, four volunteers start a 378-day mission in a 3D printed Mars habitat designed to simulate the challenges of a human mission to Mars, the VIPER Moon Rover gets tested, and the SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station and headed back to Earth.

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