Collaborative Research: Chemistry of Hot Protostellar Gas

Understanding planet formation requires knowledge of the chemical composition of the planet-forming material. The project will explore the chemistry of hot gas around protostars, where the first steps of planet formation are occurring. They will utilize high spatial resolution telescope observations along with chemical theory. The overall objective of this project is to identify key characteristics of the chemical composition of the material from which Earth-like planets form. The project will primarily support two graduate students and one postdoctoral researcher. The project will develop a series of nine astronomy lesson plans designed specifically for elementary school teachers, aimed to engage children with science at an early age. The lesson plans will also be developed in video format to be made available through portals accessible to homeschool teachers and those in classroom settings. The objective is to identify key characteristics of the chemical composition of terrestrial planet forming material, that is, material in the inner region of proto-stellar systems where the temperature is >300 K. The project will use extant ALMA data and accepted ALMA programs to directly characterize and contrast the content of both warm and hot gas. These results can be compared to existing models of bottom-up chemistry to quantify the abundance of hydrocarbons. The team will also use the ALMA data to search for distinct products of this chemistry via sophisticated line stacking and search techniques. The project will expand existing chemical networks for organic chemistry (UMIST and KIDA), with hot gas hydrocarbon chemistry and develop a 2D chemical proto-stellar disk calibrated model to identify the driving processes behind the chemistry in hot proto-stellar gas. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.