Universality of Solar-System-Level Chemical Complexity

Determine whether every Sun-like system hosts the level of chemical complexity observed in the Solar System.

Background

The paper argues that chemical complexity is widespread throughout the Solar System, with complex organic and prebiotic molecules detected in planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other bodies. However, the observational record for star-forming regions is strongly biased toward a small number of especially bright or chemically rich sources, leaving the prevalence of lighter precursor complex organic molecules insufficiently constrained. The authors identify whether every Sun-like system develops comparable chemical complexity as an unresolved question that requires statistically significant, sensitive surveys of protostellar sources and molecular clouds.

The proposed ALMA2040 chemical-demographics surveys are intended to compare complex-organic inventories and relative abundances across large samples spanning different protostellar masses, environments, and evolutionary stages. Such observations would help determine whether Solar-System-like chemical complexity is a common outcome of star and planet formation or an unusual coincidence.

References

However, whether every Sun-like system will host this level of chemical complexity is an entirely open question, because a comprehensive understanding of the prevalent lighter precursor complex organic molecules (e.g., glycolaldehyde) is still lacking.

— Chemical Demographics of Star-forming Regions  (2610.22303 - Drozdovskaya et al., 15 Oct 2026) in Section 1, subsection “How universal is chemical complexity in star-forming regions?”

These observations provide compelling evidence that the inner regions of disks around Sun-like stars may be similarly rich in COMs, but this remains untested, and abundance patterns could differ due to the impact of different host stars and disk evolution timescales.

— Chemistry on solar system scales  (2610.22055 - Walsh et al., 15 Oct 2026) in Section 3, “Case study 2: detecting complex organic molecules in solar analogue planet-forming disks”