Alcohol test may hold key to life

Alcohol molecules found in a distant galaxy may help to show if a 'fundamental constant' of nature is really constant — and if we could only have existed at this point in the history of the Universe.

Using a CSIRO radio telescope, astronomers from the University of Tasmania and CSIRO detected radio waves from molecules of methanol, a form of alcohol, in the Sculptor galaxy. The galaxy lies 11.4 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Sculptor.

CSIRO's Dr Shari Breen, a member of the research team, said: "Methanol masers are common in our galaxy, but this is the first one of its kind ever found in another galaxy."

Added by Flornes Yuen on 2014-10-07