Quantum tunneling allows for organic chemistry reactions in deep space

New Scientist : Chemical reactions are usually slowed by low temperatures because the molecules struggle to get enough energy to combine. How, then, do various organic chemicals—such as methoxy , which is a combination of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen—form in frigid deep space? One theory is that if the chemicals first become attached to dust grains, they can acquire enough energy to then bond together. But re-creating those conditions in a lab did not produce any methoxy molecules. At room temperature, methoxy can also be produced by the combination of hydroxyl and methanol gas, but the extremely low temperatures of interstellar space appear to present an insurmountable energy barrier. Dwayne Heard of the University of Leeds, UK, and his colleagues wondered if quantum tunneling would allow the hydroxyl molecules to overcome that energy barrier by instead digging through it. When they re-created in the lab a 63-K interstellar molecular gas cloud, they found that methoxy did indeed form. Even more significantly, it formed at a rate 50 times faster than the normal room-temperature reaction.