Travel across the galaxy with Ewine van Dishoeck to peek in on a stellar nursery. Van Dishoeck won the 2018 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for her work uncovering the chemistry of interstellar clouds, the vast areas of gas and dust between stars where new solar systems are born. Her research has revealed how molecules like water are created and destroyed in space. She demonstrated that the raw ingredients for life as we know it are not only present, but bountiful.
To learn more about brilliant work of Kavli Prize Laureates, visit The Kavli Prize. To explore more of the biggest questions in science, click here.
This article is part of a special report, “The Biggest Questions in Science,” sponsored by The Kavli Prize. It was produced independently by Scientific American and Nature editors, who have sole responsibility for all the editorial content.
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