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

这个项目研究复杂的有机分子(COM)--含有碳、氢、氧和氮原子的有机分子--是如何在恒星之间的物质(星际介质，或ISM)中形成的。该团队将利用实验室实验来研究冰盖颗粒上的彗星是如何形成的，就像ISM中预计存在的那些。这些彗星中的一些可能会充当“分子钟”，让我们能够揭开冷分子云和恒星形成区域的历史。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复杂。在这些实验室模拟中发现的任何COM都将成为ISM未来对该分子进行天文搜索的候选对象。这个项目还可能让我们更接近于了解关键类别的COMS可能在多大程度上是在ISM中制造的，并最终通过陨石送到年轻的地球上。PI和他的学生还将组织跨学科的“实验室天体物理学”讲习班，努力扩大夏威夷原住民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中覆盖着冰层的星际颗粒的条件，并朝向高质量和低质量恒星形成区来实现。该团队将利用超高真空表面散射仪在各种模拟环境中暴露星际冰模拟样品，温度低至10K，并包括暴露在电离紫外线(莱曼-阿尔法)辐射下。空间模拟室内无碎片真空紫外光电离的新技术，以及几种互补的检测方案，将被用于在ISM条件下探索COMS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.