Scientists are convinced more than ever that comets form organic compounds in their ephemeral atmospheres.

Scientists came to this conclusion after observing the ISON and Lemmon comets using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and creating 3D images of their atmospheres.

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ALMA observed ISON, formally known as C/2012 S1, when it was 75 million kilometers from the sun or half the distance of Earth to the Sun.

Lemmon was observed months earlier by ALMA when it was 224 million kilometers from the Sun, or about 1.5 times the distance of the Earth to the Sun.

"We achieved truly first-of-a-kind mapping of important molecules that help us understand the nature of comets," said Martin Cordiner, an astrochemist working at NASA.

Comets contain the oldest materials in the solar system, scientists explained

Understanding their unique chemistry could reveal information about the birth of the planets and the origin of organic compounds considered the building blocks of life.

Understanding organic dusts is important because these materials have the ability to resist destruction upon atmospheric entry, said Michael Mumma, one of the researchers.

New windows have been opened to reveal more about the comets' organic compounds, he said.

ALMA helped in the identification of individual molecules that allowed astronomers to create a map with great sensitivity.

Scientists believe the high sensitivity they found can pave the way for observation of hundreds of dimmer and distant comets.

They said their findings suggest it's possible to map more complex molecule that have been detected in comets.

The findings were published at the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The study was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute through the Goddard Center for Astrobiology.