Space & Physics
What brought carbon to Earth
This marks the first time a complex form of carbon essential for life on Earth has been observed outside the solar system. To learn more about the significance of this discovery, EdPublica interviewed the researchers behind the study– Gabi Wenzel, Ilsa Cooke, and Brett McGuire, who shared their insights on the implications of pyrene’s presence in space and its potential impact on our understanding of star and planet formation
A team led by researchers at MIT has detected pyrene, a complex carbon-containing molecule, in a distant interstellar cloud. This finding opens new avenues for understanding the chemical origins of our solar system. Pyrene, a type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), was found in a molecular cloud similar to the one from which our solar system formed.
This marks the first time a complex form of carbon essential for life on Earth has been observed outside the solar system. Its discovery sheds light on how the compounds necessary for life could originate in space. The team detected pyrene in
a star-forming region known as the Taurus Molecular Cloud, located 430 light-years away, making it one of the closest such clouds to Earth.
This discovery also aligns with recent findings from the asteroid Ryugu, suggesting that pyrene may have played a key role in the carbon composition of the early solar system. To learn more about the significance of this discovery, EdPublica interviewed the researchers behind the study– Gabi Wenzel, Ilsa Cooke, and Brett McGuire, who shared their insights on the implications of pyrene’s presence in space and its potential impact on our understanding of star and planet formation. Brett McGuire is an assistant professor of chemistry at MIT, Ilsa Cooke is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of British Columbia, and Gabi Wenzel is a postdoctoral researcher in McGuire’s group at MIT.
Below, the team responds to questions from EdPublica Editor Dipin Damodharan about this unexpected and exciting discovery.
‘Pyrene could be a major source of carbon in our solar system’
Q: How does the discovery of pyrene in TMC-1 enhance our understanding of the chemical inventory that contributed to the formation of our solar system?
Gabi Wenzel:
Stars much like our own sun are born from dense molecular clouds. The discovery of pyrene in a molecular cloud called TMC-1, one that might be very similar to our sun’s natal cloud and which will go on to form a star of its own, significantly enhances our understanding of the chemical inventory that contributed to the formation of our own solar system. As a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), pyrene is one of the most complex organic molecules found in early molecular clouds, suggesting that the building blocks of organic matter were available in the environments where stars and their orbiting (exo)planets form.
This discovery sheds light on the chemical processes occurring in interstellar space, including gas-phase and surface reactions on dust grains, which are crucial for the evolution of organic chemistry. This further supports the notion that the primordial materials of our solar system contained a diverse range of organic compounds, providing insights into the potential for prebiotic chemistry on a young Earth and planetesimals.
Q: What specific challenges did you face in detecting pyrene, given that it is invisible to traditional radio astronomy methods, and how did the use of cyanopyrene help overcome these challenges?
Gabi Wenzel:
Pyrene, a fully symmetric PAH, does not possess a permanent electric dipole moment and hence is invisible in radio astronomical observations or rotational spectrometers in the laboratory. The CN radical is highly abundant in the cold and dark molecular cloud TMC-1, an environment that is about 10 K cold and in which you’d assume little chemistry to happen. However, earlier experimental works have shown that the CN addition (followed by hydrogen abstraction) to ringed hydrocarbon species such as benzene and toluene at low temperatures is a barrierless process.
Adding a CN (nitrile) group to a hydrocarbon will drastically increase its permanent electric dipole moment and so allow rotational transitions. Indeed, several CN-functionalized species have been detected in TMC-1 and other sources, among which the CN-substituted benzene (cyanobenzene or benzonitrile) and other smaller PAHs, with cyanopyrene being the largest molecule found via radio astronomy to date, allowing us to infer the presence of pyrene itself.
Q: Can you elaborate on what it means for our understanding of carbon sources in the solar system that pyrene is found in both TMC-1 and asteroid Ryugu?
Ilsa Cooke:
TMC-1 is a famous example of a cold molecular cloud, one of the earliest stages of star and planet formation, while asteroids like Ryugu represent snapshots of later stages in the formation of solar systems. Asteroids are formed from material in the solar nebula that was inherited from the molecular cloud stage. Our radio observations of TMC-1 let us observe pyrene early on and possibly under conditions where it is first forming. Isotope signatures of the pyrene in Ryugu suggest it was formed in a cold interstellar cloud. From these two unique sets of measurements, we can start to unravel the inheritance of pyrene, and PAHs more generally, from their birth in interstellar space and their journey to new planets. If PAHs can survive all the way from the molecular cloud stage, they may provide planets with an important source of organic carbon.
Q: What are the different formation routes of PAHs that your research suggests, and how do these differ from previous hypotheses about PAH formation in space?
Ilsa Cooke:
Our results, combined with those of Zeichner et al., who measured pyrene in Ryugu, suggest that pyrene may form at low temperatures by “bottom-up” routes in molecular clouds. Previously, PAHs were most commonly associated with formation in high-temperature (ca. 1000 K) environments in the envelopes of dying stars. These stars are thought to eject their PAHs, along with other carbon-rich molecules, into the diffuse interstellar medium.
However, the diffuse medium is a tenuous, harsh environment permeated by ultraviolet photons, and most astrochemists think that small PAHs would not survive their journey through the diffuse medium into dense molecular clouds. So we are still left with a puzzle: does that pyrene that we observe in TMC-1 form there, or was it formed somewhere else but it was able to survive its journey more efficiently than previously thought? If the pyrene is indeed formed within TMC-1, we do not yet know the chemical mechanism. Many possibilities exist, so close collaborations between laboratory astrochemists and observers will be critical to answer this question.
Q: What are your plans for investigating larger PAH molecules in TMC-1, and what specific hypotheses are you looking to test with these investigations?
Brett McGuire:
We have a number of other targets lined up – again focusing on PAH structures that should show this special stability demonstrated by pyrene. They present the same experimental challenges, including needing to devise appropriate synthetic routes in the laboratory before collecting their spectra. The major question is just how complex the PAH inventory actually gets at this earliest stage of star formation.
Prior to our work in TMC-1, nearly everything we knew about PAHs came from infrared observations of bulk properties in much warmer and more energetic regions, where PAHs are thought to be much larger. Does the population in TMC-1 look the same as in these regions? Is it at an earlier stage of chemical evolution? And how does this distribution compare to what we see in our own Solar System?
Q: How do your findings about pyrene and PAHs in interstellar clouds influence our broader understanding of organic chemistry in the universe, particularly in relation to the origins of life?
Brett McGuire:
Life as we know it depends on carbon – it is the backbone upon which all our molecular structures are constructed. Yet, the Earth overall is somewhat depleted in carbon relative to what we’d naively expect, and we still don’t fully understand where the carbon we do have came from originally. PAHs in general seem to be a massive reservoir of reactive carbon, and what we are now seeing is that that reservoir is already present at the earliest stages of star-formation. Combined with the evidence from Ryugu, we’re now also seeing indications that the inventory of PAHs, and thus this reservoir of carbon, may actually survive from this dark molecular cloud phase through the formation of a star to be eventually incorporated into the planetary system itself.
Space & Physics
The Universe Is Ringing
How gravitational waves from colliding black holes are opening an entirely new way of exploring the cosmos
More than a century after Albert Einstein predicted them, gravitational waves are transforming astronomy. Ripples in space-time produced by colliding black holes and neutron stars are now being detected routinely, revealing a universe filled with violent mergers and cosmic echoes that have travelled billions of years to reach Earth.
A Ripple Across the Cosmos
When the densest objects in the universe collide, the impact does not simply end with the destruction or merger of stars. It sends ripples through the very fabric of space and time.
These ripples—known as gravitational waves—spread outward at the speed of light, crossing galaxies and cosmic voids for millions or even billions of years. By the time they reach Earth, they are unimaginably faint distortions of space itself.
Yet scientists have learned how to detect them.
A global network of observatories now monitors these tiny disturbances: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, the Virgo detector in Italy, and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan. Together, these instruments form one of the most sensitive scientific experiments ever constructed, capable of detecting distortions smaller than the width of a proton.
Through them, astronomers have begun to “listen” to the universe.
And what they are hearing is astonishing.
A Universe Filled with Collisions
The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has now released the latest compilation of gravitational-wave detections, to appear in a special issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. The findings suggest that the cosmos is reverberating with collisions far more frequently than scientists once imagined.
The newly released Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog-4.0 (GWTC-4) includes detections from part of the observatories’ fourth observing run, conducted between May 2023 and January 2024.
In just nine months, the detectors recorded 128 new gravitational-wave candidates—signals that likely originated from extreme astrophysical events occurring hundreds of millions or billions of light-years away.
This newest batch more than doubles the size of the gravitational-wave catalog, which previously contained 90 candidates from earlier observing runs.
“The beautiful science that we are able to do with this catalog is enabled by significant improvements in the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave detectors as well as more powerful analysis techniques,” says Nergis Mavalvala, a member of the LVK collaboration and dean of the MIT School of Science.
What began in 2015 with the first historic detection has now become a steady stream of discoveries.
“In the past decade, gravitational wave astronomy has progressed from the first detection to the observation of hundreds of black hole mergers,” says Stephen Fairhurst, professor at Cardiff University and spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “These observations enable us to better understand how black holes form from the collapse of massive stars, probe the cosmological evolution of the universe and provide increasingly rigorous confirmations of the theory of general relativity.”
When Black Holes Dance
Most gravitational waves detected so far originate from binary black holes—pairs of black holes locked in orbit around each other.
Over time, gravity draws them closer together. As they spiral inward, they release enormous amounts of energy in the form of gravitational waves. In the final fraction of a second, the two objects merge in a titanic collision, forming a single, larger black hole.
These cosmic dances are among the most energetic events in the universe.
Black holes themselves are born when massive stars collapse at the end of their lives, compressing enormous amounts of matter into regions so dense that not even light can escape.
Many form in pairs. When they eventually collide, the event sends gravitational waves surging through space.
The first such detection, announced in 2016, confirmed a century-old prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Since then, dozens—and now hundreds—of similar events have been observed.
But the latest catalog shows that the universe is far more diverse than scientists once believed.
Pushing the Edges of Black Hole Physics
The newly detected signals reveal a remarkable variety of cosmic systems.
Among them are the heaviest black hole binaries ever detected, systems where the masses of the two black holes are strikingly unequal, and pairs spinning at astonishing speeds.
“The message from this catalog is: We are expanding into new parts of what we call ‘parameter space’ and a whole new variety of black holes,” says Daniel Williams, a research fellow at the University of Glasgow. “We are really pushing the edges, and are seeing things that are more massive, spinning faster, and are more astrophysically interesting and unusual.”
One particularly dramatic signal—GW231123_135430—appears to have originated from two enormous black holes, each roughly 130 times the mass of the Sun. Most previously observed mergers involved black holes closer to 30 solar masses.
The extraordinary size of these objects suggests they may themselves have formed from earlier black hole mergers—a kind of cosmic generational chain.
Another remarkable event, GW231028_153006, revealed a binary in which both black holes are spinning at around 40 percent of the speed of light.
And in GW231118_005626, scientists detected an unusually uneven pair where one black hole is roughly twice as massive as the other.
“One of the striking things about our collection of black holes is their broad range of properties,” says Jack Heinzel, an MIT graduate student who contributed to the catalog’s analysis. “Some of them are over 100 times the mass of our sun, others are as small as only a few times the mass of the sun. Some black holes are rapidly spinning, others have no measurable spin.”
“We still don’t completely understand how black holes form in the universe,” he adds, “but our observations offer a crucial insight into these questions.”
Catching a Whisper in Space-Time
Detecting gravitational waves requires extraordinary precision.
The observatories use L-shaped interferometers with arms several kilometers long. Laser beams travel down these tunnels and reflect back to their source.
If a gravitational wave passes through the detector, it slightly stretches one arm while compressing the other, changing the distance the light travels by an incredibly tiny amount.
These changes can be smaller than one-thousandth the diameter of a proton.
Even with such advanced technology, detections remain unpredictable.
“You can’t ever predict when a gravitational wave is going to come into your detector,” says Amanda Baylor, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee who worked on the signal search. “We could have five detections in one day, or one detection every 20 days. The universe is just so random.”
Recent upgrades have dramatically improved the detectors’ reach. LIGO can now detect signals from neutron star collisions up to one billion light-years away, and black hole mergers far beyond that.
Testing Einstein’s Ultimate Theory
Gravitational waves are not only revealing spectacular cosmic events. They are also providing some of the most extreme tests ever conducted of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Black holes themselves are one of the most extraordinary predictions of the theory.
“Black holes are one of the most iconic and mind-bending predictions of general relativity,” says Aaron Zimmerman, associate professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin.
When two black holes collide, he explains, they “shake up space and time more intensely than almost any other process we can imagine observing.”
One particularly powerful signal—GW230814_230901—allowed scientists to analyze the structure of the gravitational wave in exceptional detail.
“So far, the theory is passing all our tests,” Zimmerman says. “But we’re also learning that we have to make even more accurate predictions to keep up with all the data the universe is giving us.”
Measuring the Expansion of the Universe
Gravitational waves are also becoming powerful tools for answering one of cosmology’s biggest questions: how fast the universe is expanding.
Astronomers measure this expansion using the Hubble constant, but different methods have produced conflicting results.
Gravitational waves offer an independent approach.
“Merging black holes have a really unique property: We can tell how far away they are from Earth just from analyzing their signals,” says Rachel Gray, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
“So, every merging black hole gives us a measurement of the Hubble constant, and by combining all of the gravitational wave sources together, we can vastly improve how accurate this measurement is.”
Using the current gravitational-wave catalog, scientists estimate that the universe is expanding at roughly 76 kilometers per second per megaparsec.
For now, the uncertainty remains large—but future detections could sharpen the measurement significantly.
Listening to the Future
Only a decade ago, gravitational waves were purely theoretical signals.
Today, they are transforming astronomy.
With every new detection, scientists gain another glimpse into the hidden life of the universe: the birth of black holes, the evolution of galaxies, and the behavior of gravity under the most extreme conditions imaginable.
“Each new gravitational-wave detection allows us to unlock another piece of the universe’s puzzle in ways we couldn’t just a decade ago,” says Lucy Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher at the Caltech LIGO Lab.
“It’s incredibly exciting to think about what astrophysical mysteries and surprises we can uncover with future observing runs.”
The instruments on Earth are quiet, their lasers moving silently down vacuum tunnels. But far beyond our galaxy, black holes continue to collide.
And with each collision, the universe sends out another ripple—another echo across the cosmos—waiting for us to hear it.
Space & Physics
NASA’s Artemis II Captures Stunning ‘Earthset’ Over the Moon
NASA’s Artemis II crew captures a rare Earthset over the Moon, revealing lunar basins, craters, and Earth’s night-day divide.
NASA’s Artemis II mission has captured a striking new perspective of the Moon, showing Earth setting beyond the lunar horizon in a rare and visually dramatic moment from deep space.
The image, taken on April 6, 2026, at 6:41 p.m. EDT by the Artemis II crew during their journey around the far side of the Moon, reveals Earth partially dipping behind the Moon’s curved limb—an event often described as an “Earthset.”
A Geological Snapshot of the Moon
Beyond its visual impact, the image offers a detailed look at the Moon’s complex surface.
The Orientale basin, one of the Moon’s most prominent impact structures, is visible along the edge of the lunar surface. Nearby, the Hertzsprung Basin appears as faint concentric rings, partially disrupted by the younger Vavilov crater, which sits atop the older geological formation.
Also visible are chains of secondary craters—linear indentations formed by debris ejected during the massive impact that created the Orientale basin.
Artemis II: Earth in Shadow and Light
The photograph also captures Earth in a moment of contrast.
The darkened portion of the planet is in nighttime, while the illuminated side reveals swirling cloud formations over Australia and the Oceania region, offering a reminder of Earth’s dynamic atmosphere even from hundreds of thousands of kilometres away.
Artemis II: A New Era of Lunar Exploration
The Artemis II mission marks a major step in NASA’s return to the Moon, carrying astronauts on a crewed journey around the lunar surface for the first time in over five decades.
Images like this not only provide scientific insights into lunar geology but also offer a powerful visual connection between Earth and its nearest celestial neighbour—highlighting both the scale of space exploration and the fragility of our home planet.
Space & Physics
MIT Develops System to Boost Data Centre Efficiency by Up to 94%
MIT researchers develop Sandook, a system that boosts data centre efficiency by up to 94% without new hardware, improving SSD performance.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new system that significantly improves data centre efficiency by optimising the performance of storage devices, potentially reducing the need for additional hardware.
The system, called Sandook, addresses a persistent challenge in modern data centres—underutilisation of storage devices due to performance variability. By simultaneously tackling multiple sources of inefficiency, the approach delivers substantial performance gains compared to traditional methods.
Data Centre Efficiency: Addressing a Hidden Bottleneck
In data centres, multiple storage devices such as solid-state drives (SSDs) are often pooled together so that applications can share resources. However, differences in device performance mean that slower drives can limit overall system efficiency.
MIT researchers found that these inefficiencies stem from three key factors: hardware variability across devices, conflicts between read and write operations, and unpredictable slowdowns caused by internal processes like garbage collection.
To overcome this, the team developed Sandook, a software-based system designed to manage these issues in real time.
Two-Tier Intelligent Architecture
The system uses a two-tier architecture, combining a global controller that distributes tasks across devices with local controllers that react quickly to performance slowdowns.
This structure allows Sandook to dynamically balance workloads, rerouting tasks away from devices experiencing delays and optimising performance across the entire system.
The system also profiles the behaviour of individual SSDs, enabling it to anticipate slowdowns and adjust workloads accordingly.
Significant Performance Gains
When tested on real-world tasks such as database operations, AI model training, image compression, and data storage, Sandook demonstrated major improvements.
The system increased throughput by between 12 percent and 94 percent compared to conventional methods, while also improving overall storage utilisation by 23 percent. It enabled SSDs to achieve up to 95 percent of their theoretical maximum performance—without requiring specialised hardware.
A More Sustainable Approach
Researchers emphasised that improving efficiency is critical given the cost and environmental impact of data centre infrastructure.
“There is a tendency to want to throw more resources at a problem to solve it, but that is not sustainable in many ways. We want to be able to maximize the longevity of these very expensive and carbon-intensive resources,” said Gohar Chaudhry, lead author of the study, ina media statement.
“With our adaptive software solution, you can still squeeze a lot of performance out of your existing devices before you need to throw them away and buy new ones,” she added.
Unlocking Untapped Potential
The system also addresses the challenge of inconsistent device behaviour over time.
“I can’t assume all SSDs will behave identically through my entire deployment cycle. Even if I give them all the same workload, some of them will be stragglers, which hurts the net throughput I can achieve,” Chaudhry explained.
By continuously adjusting workloads, Sandook ensures that even underperforming devices contribute effectively without dragging down overall performance.
Researchers say the system could be further enhanced by integrating new storage technologies and adapting to predictable workloads such as artificial intelligence applications.
“Our dynamic solution can unlock more performance for all the SSDs and really push them to the limit. Every bit of capacity you can save really counts at this scale,” Chaudhry said.
Implications
As demand for data processing continues to surge, innovations like Sandook could play a critical role in making data centres more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable—without requiring massive infrastructure expansion.
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