{"id":247168,"date":"2026-11-12T07:14:04","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T13:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/jwst-detects-a-forbidden-signal-never-before-seen-in-the-universe-not-even-in-a-lab"},"modified":"2026-11-12T07:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T13:14:04","slug":"jwst-detects-a-forbidden-signal-never-before-seen-in-the-universe-not-even-in-a-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/jwst-detects-a-forbidden-signal-never-before-seen-in-the-universe-not-even-in-a-lab","title":{"rendered":"JWST Detects a \u2018Forbidden\u2019 Signal Never Before Seen in The Universe \u2014 Not Even in a Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the most important molecules in the Universe has been hiding its light for decades.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the foundation for almost all gas-phase interstellar chemistry \u2013 including the formation of complex organic molecules that make up the ingredients for life.<\/p>\n<p>Its name is the trihydrogen cation (H<sub>3<\/sub><sup>+<\/sup>), and it\u2019s so important that it\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/science\/bes\/articles\/forming-ion-made-universe\">often referred to<\/a> as \u201cthe molecule that made the Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most important molecules in the Universe has been hiding its light for decades. It\u2019s the foundation for almost all gas-phase interstellar chemistry \u2013 including the formation of complex organic molecules that make up the ingredients for life. Its name is the trihydrogen cation (H3+), and it\u2019s so important that it\u2019s often referred [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}