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

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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.