Abstract
Forty years ago it was proposed that gas phase organic chemistry in the interstellar medium was initiated by the methyl cation CH3+, but hitherto it has not been observed outside the Solar System. Alternative routes involving processes on grain surfaces have been invoked. Here we report JWST observations of CH3+ in a protoplanetary disk in the Orion star forming region. We find that gas-phase organic chemistry is activated by UV irradiation.
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