Discovery of Farthest Organic Molecules in Space.

Astronomers have discovered the most distant organic molecules in the universe using the James Webb Space Telescope. The molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are considered the basic building blocks for early forms of life. The discovery was made in a galaxy more than 12 billion light years from Earth, and the light used to make the observation likely began traveling when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old. The researchers used gravitational lensing and the James Webb telescope's sensitive instruments to differentiate between infrared signals produced by larger dust particles and those produced by PAHs.