Astronomers have detected a rare, heavy form of alcohol in deep space for the first time, finding fully deuterated methanol around a newborn star 1,000 light-years from Earth.

The discovery came from the ALMA COMPASS Large Program, an international survey that spent more than 100 hours of telescope time cataloguing the organic chemistry of eleven young, Sun-like stars. Seven papers from the programme were published this week.

The molecule, with the chemical formula CD3OD, has every hydrogen atom replaced by deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen. It was found orbiting the infant protostar IRAS 4A2 in the Perseus molecular cloud. Researchers say its abundance is about 100 times higher than chemical models predict, challenging current theories of interstellar chemistry.

Methanol is a key building block for complex organic compounds in space, and the findings suggest young stars are surrounded by a surprisingly rich chemical starter kit that could one day seed planets.

COMPASS principal investigator Jes Jorgensen of the University of Copenhagen said the results offer new insight into chemistry around the youngest protostars and how these ingredients might influence conditions on planets and the origin of life.