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For the first time, scientists have discovered a special type of聽, a discovery that they say could be key to understanding the origins of life on Earth.

The newly discovered molecule is called propylene oxide. It was discovered in a cloud of gas and dust near the center of the Milky Way called Sagittarius B2.

The molecule鈥檚 most striking feature is its chirality, or 鈥渉andedness,鈥� meaning that the molecule has two possible mirroring branches, a 鈥渞ight hand鈥� and a 鈥渓eft hand.鈥�

"This is the first molecule detected in interstellar space that has the property of chirality,鈥� said Brett McGuire, the Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in a statement, 鈥渕aking it a pioneering leap forward in our understanding of how prebiotic molecules are made in the Universe and the ."

Scientists have been aware of molecules with chirality within our own solar system for some time, but this is the first time scientists have detected them in interstellar space.

Now that they have discovered the molecule, researchers say that they will be able to perform more complex tests.

First up: A test to determine which 鈥渉and鈥� the propylene oxide favors. Currently, scientists are unable to determine which hand the molecule would rather shake with, but in the future, they intend to test the molecule's reaction to polarized light.

The different hands of chiral molecules are mirror images, but not interchangeable, scientists say. Propylene oxide comes in both 鈥渓eft handed鈥� and 鈥渞ight handed鈥� varieties, each of which forms chemical reactions with only other molecules that have the correct 鈥渉andedness.鈥�

"When you shake somebody's hand, your right hand shakes another right hand, and it forms that ; if you try to shake a left hand with your right hand it's a little awkward because the interaction is different," Dr. McGuire told Space.com. "Chiral molecules work the same way.鈥�

For this reason, many of Earth鈥檚 chiral molecules (such as amino acids) are all the same 鈥渉andedness.鈥�

Scientists say that this discovery opens the door for further research on the origins of life.

Brandon Carroll of the California Institute of Technology, one of study鈥檚 authors, said that while scientists have seen preferences towards one 鈥渉andedness鈥� or the other on meteorites in our solar system, it is important to understand the origin of those preferences.

And to do that, he says, scientists must understand the gas clouds, like Sagittarius B2, where meteorites are formed.

If chiral molecules exist in the gas clouds that form meteorites, as propylene oxide exists in Sagittarius B2, and they have pre-existing 鈥渉andedness鈥� preferences, then that could explain why chiral molecules on Earth have these preferences, too.

This finding could be further proof of the theory that the so-called building blocks of life were delivered to Earth by meteorites.

In May, researchers took another step towards proving this theory when they discovered an amino acid called glycine on a comet.

Speculating about the origin of differently oriented chiral molecules can be dangerous. What would our world be like if amino acids had been differently "handed" when they arrived via meteorite? In 2012, one prominent chemist made waves by speculating that different chiralities may have produced smarter dinosaurs.

Whatever the possible past could have been, scientists like McGuire are keen to explore, saying that, 鈥淏y discovering a chiral molecule in space, we finally have a way to study where and how these molecules form before they find their way into meteorites and comets, and to understand the role they play in the origins of homochirality and life.鈥�