justaevolvedchimp1784260825

In 1995, radio astronomers pointed their instruments toward the constellation Aquila. They found a gas cloud 10,000 light-years away. The scale is difficult to grasp. It spans a thousand times the diameter of our entire solar system. And it is teeming with ethyl alcohol and methanol. You cannot drink it. It is laced with toxic compounds and adrift in a freezing vacuum. But the alcohol is not what matters. It is what the chemistry represents. This cloud proved that complex organic molecules—the foundational building blocks of life—assemble themselves in the dark, empty stretches of space long before stars or planets even exist. We used to think the ingredients for life required a warm planetary soup to form. This cloud proved they just need stardust and time.