Methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a carbon-rich molecule that helps form amino acids, was detected in the orbital debris surrounding the baby star MWC 480, which is only one million years old (for reference, the Sun is around 4.5 billion years old). The system is still in a very developmental stage, and has only recently condensed from a nebula into a protoplanetary disk of dense gas that will eventually evolve into planets.

"It is the first time we have seen complex organic molecules in a disk," said Karin Öberg, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in an email interview with Motherboard. "We have also not yet detected any complex organics in a mature exo-planetary system."