In the dense gaseous cocoon around a young massive star, streams of matter collide as if in a giant chemical flask. One stream moves relative to us at about 11 kilometers per second, the other at about 5. The telescope at Onsala (Sweden) caught their radio voices and resolved them into hundreds of spectral lines — molecular fingerprints.
It turns out that in the fast stream, where most of the organics are concentrated, ionization proceeds unusually briskly. The cause is cosmic rays (charged particles flying through the Galaxy). They knock electrons out of atoms, and those electrons kick off chains of reactions. The ionization rate here is about 7×10⁻¹⁷ per second per particle. For comparison, in quiescent clouds the value is tens or hundreds of times lower.
Computer modeling confirmed the hunch. The program 'Nautilus' was fed the measured density (260 thousand hydrogen molecules per cubic centimeter), temperature, and ionization rate. It reproduced the observed concentrations of methanol and other species. So the enhanced cosmic-ray flux indeed acts as a catalyst — speeding up the assembly of complex molecules right on grain surfaces.
This result changes our view of chemistry in massive stellar nurseries. Previously, it was thought that harsh radiation and shock waves destroy fragile organics. Now it's clear: if a cloud has a local ionization source (like a protostellar jet), it can, on the contrary, aid synthesis. Thus, nature finds a path to complexity even in the most turbulent environments.
The ionization rate in the fast flow of Cepheus A HW2 is about 70 times higher than in typical molecular clouds, as if someone lit 70 times more matches in a single room, each sparking a chemical reaction.
In Fred Hoyle's novel 'The Black Cloud', a sentient interstellar cloud uses cosmic rays to power its processes — much like the real chemistry of protostars.