Branched carbon molecule detected in interstellar space

BBC : Isopropyl cyanide, (CH₃)₂CHCN, is the most complex organic molecule yet detected in interstellar space. Other organic molecules have been found in the past, but isopropyl cyanide is the first to have a branched carbon structure, a feature common in amino acids. The discovery was made by Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany and his colleagues. They had been using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile to examine Sagittarius B2, a star-forming cloud 27 000 light-years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way. Several other organic molecules had previously been discovered in the same region. It is believed that such molecules are produced during the heat of star formation, which drives chemical reactions on the surface of dust particles. The increasing numbers of complex molecules being detected supports the idea that the building blocks of life could have developed everywhere and then been deposited on planets throughout the universe.