Molecule was detected 1,350 light-years from Earth in the Orion Nebula

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected a new carbon compound in space for the first time that forms the foundations of all known life.

Known as methyl cation (CH3+), the molecule was found in a young star system about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula, an enormous cloud of dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are being forged.

CH3+ is theorized to be particularly important because it reacts readily with many other molecules, and scientists suspect it forms a cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry.