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For the first time, astronomers have found the building blocks of life in a distant early star system.

Scientists detected the complex organic molecules in a disk of gas and dust around a star 455 light years away where planets are likely to be forming.

The discovery is a boost for finding alien organisms and suggests the conditions that spawned life on Earth are not unique to our solar system.

Scientists detected the complex organic molecules in a disc of gas around an infant star 455 light years away where planets are likely to be forming. The discovery is a boost for finding alien organisms and suggests the conditions that spawned life on Earth are not unique to our solar system

Radio telescope observations showed the disk surrounding the million-year-old star MWC 480 to be 'brimming' with the complex carbon-based molecule methyl cyanide.

Both this molecule and its simpler organic cousin hydrogen cyanide were identified in the cold outer reaches of the newly formed disc.

The region can be compared with our solar system's Kuiper Belt, a realm of icy mini-worlds and comets beyond Neptune.

Experts believe comets and asteroids from the outer solar system seeded the young Earth with water and organic molecules to set the stage for life to evolve.

Astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (Alma), a powerful suit of interacting radio telescopes in Chile's Atacama desert, to investigate MWC 480. Alma's high sensitivity antennae have now shown that such molecules not only form and survive, but thrive

Astronomer Dr Karin Oberg, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Massachusetts, said: 'Studies of comets and asteroids show that the solar nebula that spawned our sun and planets was rich in water and complex organic compounds.

WE COULD FIND ALIEN LIFE IN THE NEXT 10 TO 20 YEARS, SAYS NASA

'I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade,' said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for Nasa, (pictured)

There at least 200 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy – and now Nasa officials claim we could be on the verge of finding life on one of them.

During a talk in Washington yesterday, the space agency announced that humanity is likely to encounter extra-terrestrials within a decade.

'I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years,' said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for Nasa. 'We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.'

Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: 'It's definitely not an if, it's a when.'

'We are not talking about little green men,' Stofan said. 'We are talking about little microbes.' 

'We now have evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own.'

The molecules surrounding MWC 480 have been detected in similar concentrations in our own solar system's comets, she pointed out.

The star, which is about twice as massive as the sun, lies in a well-studied star-forming region in the constellation Taurus.

Astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (Alma), a powerful suit of interacting radio telescopes in Chile's Atacama desert, to investigate MWC 480.

Previously it was unclear whether complex organic molecules commonly survive the shocks and radiation levels found in a newly forming solar system

Alma's high sensitivity antennae have now shown that such molecules not only form and survive, but thrive.

The findings, reported in the journal Nature, reveal that there is enough methyl cyanide around MWC 480 to fill all of the Earth's oceans.

Among complex organic molecules, cyanides - especially methyl cyanide - are important because they contain carbon-nitrogen bonds essential for the formation of amino acids, the components of proteins.

As the MWC 480 system evolves it is likely that organic molecules locked away in comets and other icy bodies will be ferried closer to the star where conditions may be suitable for life, the scientists believe.

Dr Oberg added: 'From the study of exoplanets, we know our solar system isn't unique in having rocky planets and an abundance of water.

'Now we know we're not unique in organic chemistry. Once more, we have learned that we're not special. From a life in the universe point of view, this is great news.'