Astronomers using the ALMA telescope have detected a rare form of methanol around newborn stars for the first time. The find came from the COMPASS survey of planet-forming regions.

The fully deuterated methanol — CD3OD, the heaviest version of the simplest alcohol — was found orbiting the infant protostar IRAS 4A2 in the Perseus cloud, about 1,000 light-years away.

Young Sun-like stars appear wrapped in a “chemical starter kit” of organic molecules that may one day enrich planets, said Niels Bohr Institute professor Jes Jorgensen, the program’s lead. The discovery is one of seven papers from over 100 hours of ALMA observations.

The molecule is a chemical record of conditions tens of thousands of years before the star ignited. It may shed light on how the ingredients of life reach newborn planets.

The COMPASS team will next hunt for more complex molecules in the same systems, inching toward prebiotic chemistry. Each detection helps pin down when and where the building blocks of planets — and potentially life — are assembled.