An Experimental Investigation of the Synthesis of Complex Organic Molecules in Interstellar Analog Ices

该项目研究复杂有机分子（COM）-含有碳，氢，氧和氮原子的有机分子-如何在恒星之间的物质（“星际介质”或ISM）中形成。 该团队将使用实验室实验来研究COMs如何在冰包裹的颗粒上形成，就像那些预计存在于ISM中的颗粒一样。 其中一些COM可以作为“分子钟”，使我们能够解开冷分子云和星星形成区域的历史。 PI和他的学生将通过实验确定我们应该期望星际分子变得多么复杂。在这些实验室模拟中发现的任何COM都将成为ISM中未来天文搜索这种分子的候选者。 这个项目也可能使我们更接近于了解关键类别的COM可能在ISM中制造并最终通过陨石运送到年轻地球的程度。 PI和他的学生还将组织跨学科的“实验室天体物理学”研讨会，努力扩大夏威夷土著人对研究和教育活动的参与，并参与公共宣传活动。这些目标将通过系统地复制冷分子云内冰覆盖的星际颗粒的条件以及朝向高质量和低质量星星形成区域来实现。 该团队将利用超高真空表面散射机在各种模拟环境中暴露星际冰模拟样品，温度低至10 K，包括暴露于电离紫外线（莱曼α）辐射。空间模拟室内的无碎片真空紫外光电离新技术，沿着几个互补的检测方案，将用于探索ISM条件下的COM的合成。

This project studies how complex organic molecules (COM) -- organic molecules containing atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen -- are formed in the material between the stars (the "interstellar medium", or ISM). The team will use laboratory experiments to study how COMs form on ice-coated grains like those expected to exist in the ISM. Some of these COMs might serve as 'molecular clocks' allowing us to unravel the history of cold molecular clouds and star forming regions. The PI and his students will experimentally determine just how complex we should expect interstellar molecules to become. Any COM discovered in these laboratory simulations will a candidate for future astronomical searches of this molecule in the ISM. This project might also bring us closer to understanding the extent to which key classes of COMs might have been manufactured in the ISM and eventually delivered to the young Earth via meteorites. The PI and his students will also organize interdisciplinary "laboratory astrophysics" workshops, work to broaden participation of native Hawai'ians in research and educational activities, and engage in public outreach activities. These goals will be achieved by systematically replicating the conditions of ice-coated interstellar grains within cold molecular clouds and toward high- and low-mass star forming regions. The team will utilize an ultra-high vacuum surface scattering machine to expose interstellar ice analog samples in various simulated environments, with temperatures as low as 10 K, and including exposure to ionizing ultraviolet (Lyman-alpha) radiation. The novel technology of fragment-free vacuum ultraviolet photoionization within a space simulation chamber, along with several complementary detection schemes, will be used to probe the synthesis of COMs in ISM conditions.