Astrochemistry

By
Mayada El Olamy Mayar Raouf Miar Mohie Al-Dien Mirna Samir Mirna Sabry 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 Mirna Emad Mirna Hany Mirna Wadia Mirette Hanna Mina Onsy 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010

Astrochemistry is the study of chemistry in space. More specifically, it is the study of the chemical interactions between the gases and dust interspersed between the stars. It is the study of the abundance and reactions of chemical elements and molecules in the universe, and their interaction with radiation. The discipline is an overlap of astronomy and chemistry. The word "astrochemistry" may be applied to both the Solar System and the interstellar medium. The study of the abundance of elements and isotope ratios in Solar System objects, such as meteorites, is also called cosmochemistry, while the study of interstellar atoms and molecules and their interaction with radiation is sometimes also called molecular astrophysics. The formation, atomic and chemical composition, evolution and fate of molecular gas clouds is of special interest, because it is from these clouds that solar systems form.

Molecular Chemistry in Space Giant clouds of gas and dust called Giant Molecular Clouds or GMC's contain enormous numbers of molecules. These clouds stretch across vast distances, up to a light year or more across. Throughout most of their volume, pressures, densities and temperatures are exceedingly low, a tiny fraction of those found here on Earth. Comparing molecular processes in GMC's with those on Earth can provide insights into how our planet's chemistry evolved given its unique environment. Molecular evolution in space involves several chemical reactions, each tending to yield more complex molecules than the previous. Forged in the cores of stars, then returned to the interstellar medium during stardeath, elements such carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen combine to form hydrogen cyanide, water, and ammonia. Evidence is mounting that these

molecules could, in turn, combine to produce simple amino acids, one of the main chemical building blocks of life.

Photochemistry of Titan's atmosphere. Image credit: NASA

The "astronomer's periodic table," in which the area of the element in the table is proportional to its abundance in space.

From Amino Acids to Life For decades, astronomers have debated whether the molecules of life were formed in the depths of space, or evolved amidst the violent volcanic eruptions and severe lighting storms
2

that raged on the young Earth. If amino acids evolve in interstellar space, then how much more likely are they, and perhaps even carbon-based life itself, to be found elsewhere in the universe. Conversely, if the molecules required for biochemistry evolved exclusively on Earth, then life is surely a one-time deal, maybe never to be repeated in the cosmos.

While these questions remain hotly debated, evidence is mounting that at least some of life's precursor molecules were formed between the stars. Embedded in meteorites and moon rocks, some amino acids may have been first created in interstellar space, then frozen in meteors which bombarded the Earth during its early history. In hopes of unmasking more evidence, astronomers are searching for amino acids in the cold, molecular gas found in some regions of our own Milky Way galaxy. One such region is Sagittarius B2, commonly referred to as Sgr B2. A giant, star-forming molecular cloud some 30 thousand light years away, SGr B2 lies near the center of our galaxy. Containing an abundance of carbon- and nitrogen-rich molecules, Sgr B2 presents a perfect target for the search. Employing the BIMA array, astronomers are probing this region for glycine, one of the smallest, simplest amino acids. The BIMA array's flexible spectrometer and high spectral resolution allow astronomers to map the precise abundances and locations of the molecules present in Sgr B2, as well as their velocities. Taken together, this information will help researchers ascertain how simple molecules such as hydrogen cyanide (HCN), water (H2O), ammonia (NH3), and formaldehyde (H2CO) might combine in space to yield glycine and other amino acids. For many years astronomers possessed little knowledge of the composition of interstellar space. Optical astronomy revealed only stars, galaxies, and nebulae. Darkness appeared to
3

reign between the stars, as if nothing was there. With the arrival of radio-astronomy in the 50s and 60s, astounding discoveries began to emerge. Observation of molecular hydrogen's 21 centimeter spectral line, revealed an abundance of hydrogen between the stars. Up until that time, optical astronomy pointed to an absence of material; the presence of so much gas in interstellar space was inconceivable. Since the discovery of molecular hydrogen, many more types of molecules have been detected. Some do not exist on Earth, while others abound, particularly hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and water. Scientists are now expanding their search to more complex molecules, carbon-rich compounds that may hold the key to how life began on our planet. More Windows on Astrochemistry To obtain a full understanding of molecular evolution in space, one that may settle the question of whether the precursor molecules of life, or even life itself, could have evolved in the hostile environment of the young Earth, or if these same molecules could have been transported here by comets and meteorites, radioastronomers cannot rely upon results obtained solely from millimeter observations. Comparison with observations in other wavebands, especially the centimeter and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, provide important details about the physical conditions favoring chemical evolution in space. All of these studies involve detecting a variety of tracer molecules. Cloaked deep within GMC's, newborn stars emit radiowaves in the centimeter waveband. This radiation reveals the presence of hot, ionized gases close to the surfaces of stars and also surrounding them. From centimeter emissions, astrochemists know where the star is located and how much energy it gives off to the surrounding molecular gases within the GMC. Infrared observations of tracer gases provide a measure of how hot the enveloping gas has become. Its temperature indicates how much energy is available to drive chemical reactions thought to yield complex molecules, including perhaps amino acids. Cool Ractions :

As a general rule, atoms and moleculesvery much like humanstend to slow down as they get colder, which means less movement and interactions with their peers. Astrochemist Ian Sims and colleagues at the Rennes-based PALMS laboratory,1 together with colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States, recently showed how some particles shake off this tendency to hibernate, and become more chemically active when getting near the frigid temperatures found in outer space.2 In chemistry, the Arrhenius equation, which was first formulated in the 19th century, states that chemical reactions become faster as temperatures increase. Atoms and molecules need to overcome an energy barrier to react with each other, and as Sims explains, an increase in temperature can give them the impulse to get over that hill. But the Arrhenius equation does not apply to all reactions. In the frigid vastness of space, interstellar clouds have to be chemically active to become stars. Figuring out which chemicals will react and at what temperatures is difficult: Theory can't answer everything, and low-temperature experiments are both time-consuming and expensive. To investigate this matter, Sims and his team used the CRESU3 technique in which a lowdensity gas moves at supersonic speeds through a tube, creating temperatures as low as 263C. Measuring the reaction of oxygen atoms and different gas phase hydrocarbons called alkenes, they found that the speed of the reactions was connected to the ionization potential of the alkene. If the ionization potential was above a certain threshold, the alkene and oxygen were unable to overcome the energy barrier to react with each other in cold environments. On the other hand, if the ionization potential was just below the threshold, the chemicals could overcome this barrier and react with one another. These [atoms and molecules] need a certain amount of time to adjust their configuration to get over the barrier, and they have that time at lower temperatures, explains Sims. In other words, low temperatures actually aid the reaction process. With Sims' experiments, and theoretical calculations from his American colleagues, it should now be possible to predict extreme-cold reactions from room-temperature experiments. Spectroscopy One particularly important experimental tool in astrochemistry is spectroscopy, the use of telescopes to measure the absorption and emission of light from molecules and atoms in various environments. By comparing astronomical observations with laboratory measurements, astrochemists can infer the elemental abundances, chemical composition, and temperatures of stars and interstellar clouds. This is possible because ions, atoms, and molecules have characteristic spectra: that is, the absorption and emission of certain wavelengths (colors) of light, often not visible to the human eye. However, these measurements have limitations, with various types of radiation (radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet etc.) able to detect only certain types of species, depending on the chemical properties of the molecules. Interstellar formaldehyde was the first polyatomic organic molecule detected in the interstellar medium.

Perhaps the most powerful technique for detection of individual molecules is radio astronomy, which has resulted in the detection of over a hundred interstellar species, including radicals and ions, and organic (i.e. carbon-based) compounds, such as alcohols, acids, aldehydes, and ketones. One of the most abundant interstellar molecules, and among the easiest to detect with radio waves (due to its strong electric dipole moment), is CO (carbon monoxide). In fact, CO is such a common interstellar molecule that it is used to map out molecular regions.[1] The radio observation of perhaps greatest human interest is the claim of interstellar glycine,[2] the simplest amino acid, but with considerable accompanying controversy.[3] One of the reasons why this detection was controversial is that although radio (and some other methods like rotational spectroscopy) are good for the identification of simple species with large dipole moments, they are less sensitive to more complex molecules, even something relatively small like amino acids. Moreover, such methods are completely blind to molecules that have no dipole. For example, by far the most common molecule in the universe is H2 (hydrogen gas), but it does not have a dipole moment, so it is invisible to radio telescopes. Moreover, such methods cannot detect species that are not in the gas-phase. Since dense molecular clouds are very cold (10-50 K = -263 to -223 C = -440 to -370 F), most molecules in them (other than hydrogen) are frozen, i.e. solid. Instead, hydrogen and these other molecules are detected using other wavelengths of light. Hydrogen is easily detected in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible ranges from its absorption and emission of light (the hydrogen line). Moreover, most organic compounds absorb and emit light in the infrared (IR) so, for example, the recent detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars[4] was achieved using an IR ground-based telescope, NASA's 3-meter Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. NASA also has an airborne IR telescope called SOFIA and an IR space telescope called Spitzer. Infrared astronomy has also revealed that the interstellar medium contains a suite of complex gas-phase carbon compounds called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, often abbreviated PAHs or PACs. These molecules, composed primarily of fused rings of carbon (either neutral or in an ionized state), are said to be the most common class of carbon compound in the galaxy. They are also the most common class of carbon molecule in meteorites and in cometary and asteroidal dust (cosmic dust). These compounds, as well as the amino acids, nucleobases, and many other compounds in meteorites, carry deuterium and isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen that are very rare on earth, attesting to their extraterrestrial origin. The PAHs are thought to form in hot circumstellar environments (around dying, carbon-rich red giant stars). Infrared astronomy has also been used to assess the composition of solid materials in the interstellar medium, including silicates, kerogen-like carbon-rich solids, and ices. This is because unlike visible light, which is scattered or absorbed by solid particles, the IR radiation can pass through the microscopic interstellar particles, but in the process there are absorptions at certain wavelengths that are characteristic of the composition of the grains.[5]

As above with radio astronomy, there are certain limitations, e.g. N2 is difficult to detect by either IR or radio astronomy. Such IR observations have determined that in dense clouds (where there are enough particles to attenuate the destructive UV radiation) thin ice layers coat the microscopic particles, permitting some low-temperature chemistry to occur. Since hydrogen is by far the most abundant molecule in the universe, the initial chemistry of these ices is determined by the chemistry of the hydrogen. If the hydrogen is atomic, then the H atoms react with available O, C and N atoms, producing "reduced" species like H2O, CH4, and NH3. However, if the hydrogen is molecular and thus not reactive, this permits the heavier atoms to react or remain bonded together, producing CO, CO2, CN, etc. These mixed-molecular ices are exposed to ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays, which results in complex radiation-driven chemistry.[6] Lab experiments on the photochemistry of simple interstellar ices have produced amino acids.[7] The similarity between interstellar and cometary ices (as well as comparisons of gas phase compounds) have been invoked as indicators of a connection between interstellar and cometary chemistry. This is somewhat supported by the results of the analysis of the organics from the comet samples returned by the Stardust mission but the minerals also indicated a surprising contribution from high-temperature chemistry in the solar nebula. Research Research is progressing on the way in which interstellar and circumstellar molecules form and interact, and this research could have a profound impact on our understanding of the suite of molecules that were present in the molecular cloud when our solar system formed, which contributed to the rich carbon chemistry of comets and asteroids and hence the meteorites and interstellar dust particles which fall to the Earth by the ton every day. The sparseness of interstellar and interplanetary space results in some unusual chemistry, since symmetry-forbidden reactions cannot occur except on the longest of timescales. For this reason, molecules and molecular ions which are unstable on Earth can be highly abundant in space, for example the H3+ ion. Astrochemistry overlaps with astrophysics and nuclear physics in characterizing the nuclear reactions which occur in stars, the consequences for stellar evolution, as well as stellar 'generations'. Indeed, the nuclear reactions in stars produce every naturally occurring chemical element. As the stellar 'generations' advance, the mass of the newly formed elements increases. A first-generation star uses elemental hydrogen (H) as a fuel source and produces helium (He). Hydrogen is the most abundant element, and it is the basic building block for all other elements as its nucleus has only one proton. Gravitational pull toward the center of a star creates massive amounts of heat and pressure, which cause nuclear fusion. Through this process of merging nuclear mass, heavier elements are formed. Carbon, oxygen and silicon are examples of elements that form in stellar fusion. After many stellar generations, very heavy elements are formed (e.g. iron and lead).
7

In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic matter ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.[8][9][10]

Meteorites are often studied as part of cosmochemistry. Cosmochemistry or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. [1] This is done primarily through the study of the chemical composition of meteorites and other physical samples. Given that the asteroid parent bodies of meteorites were some of the first solid material to condense from the early solar nebula, cosmochemists are generally, but not exclusively, concerned with the objects contained within the solar system. History In 1938, Swiss mineralogist Victor Goldschmidt and his colleagues compiled a list of what they called "cosmic abundances" based on their analysis of several terrestrial and meteorite samples.[2] Goldschmidt justified the inclusion of meteorite composition data into his table by claiming that terrestrial rocks were subjected to a significant amount of chemical change due to the inherent processes of the Earth and the atmosphere. This meant that studying terrestrial rocks exclusively would not yield an accurate overall picture of the chemical composition of the cosmos. Therefore, Goldschmidt concluded that extraterrestrial material must also be included to produce more accurate and robust data. This research is considered to be the foundation of modern cosmochemistry.[1] During the 1950's and 1960's, cosmochemistry became more accepted as a science. Harold Urey, widely considered to be one of the fathers of cosmochemistry,[1] engaged in research that eventually led to an understanding of the origin of the elements and the chemical abundance of stars. In 1956, Urey and his colleague, German scientist Hans Suess, published the first table of cosmic abundances to include isotopes based on meteorite analysis.[3] The continued refinement of analytical instrumentation throughout the 1960's, especially that of mass spectrometry, allowed cosmochemists to perform detailed analyses of the isotopic abundances of elements within meteorites. in 1960, John Reynolds determined, through the analysis of short-lived nuclides within meteorites, that the elements of the solar system were formed before the solar system itself [4] which began to establish a timeline of the processes of the early solar system.
8

In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic matter ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.[5][6][7] Meteorites Meteorites are one of the most important tools that cosmochemists have for studying the chemical nature of the solar system. Many meteorites come from material that is as old as the solar system itself, and thus provides scientists with a record from the early solar nebula.[1] Carbonaceous chondrites are especially primitive; that is they have retained many of their chemical properties since their formation 4.56 billion years ago[8], and are therefore a major focus of cosmochemical investigations. Recent findings by NASA, based on studies of meteorites found on Earth, suggests DNA and RNA components (adenine, guanine and related organic molecules), building blocks for life as we know it, may be formed extraterrestrially in outer space.[9][10][11]

Astrochemistry is the area of study where astronomy and chemistry overlap. In essence it is the study of the abundance and reactions of chemical elements and molecules in the universe. The formation, atomic and chemical composition, evolution and fate of molecular gas clouds is of special interest, because it is from these clouds that solar systems form. The most important tool in this area of study is spectroscopy.

Spectroscopy is the use of telescopes to measure the absorption and emission of light from molecules and atoms in various environments. The abundance of elements, chemical composition, and temperatures can be inferred from astronomical observations when compared to laboratory measurements. This is possible because ions, atoms, and molecules have characteristic ways that they absorb and emit certain wavelengths (colors) of light, often not visible to the human eye. On the other hand, these measurements have limitations, with various types of radiation (radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet etc.) able to detect only certain types of species, depending on the chemical properties of the molecules. Radio astronomy is the most powerful technique for detection of individual molecules. It has resulted in the detection of over a hundred interstellar species including:radicals, ions, and carbon-based compounds(alcohols, acids, ketones). One of the most abundant interstellar molecules is carbon monoxide(CO). It is such a common interstellar molecule that it is used to map out molecular regions. Infrared astronomy has also been used to assess the composition of solid materials in the interstellar medium, including silicates, carbon-rich solids, and ices, because, unlike visible light, the IR radiation can pass through the microscopic interstellar particles, but there are absorptions at certain wavelengths that are characteristic of the composition of the grains. These observations have determined that in dense clouds thin ice layers coat the microscopic particles, permitting some low-temperature chemistry to occur. Since hydrogen is by far the most abundant molecule in the universe, the initial chemistry of these ices is determined by the chemistry of the hydrogen. If the hydrogen is atomic, then the H atoms react with available O, C and N atoms; but, if the hydrogen is molecular and thus not reactive, this permits the heavier atoms to react or remain bonded together. These mixedmolecular ices are exposed to ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays which results in complex radiation-driven chemistry.

10

Image of the sun acquired by the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center July 15, 1999. NASA You may know the sun consists mainly of hydrogen and helium. Have you ever wondered what about the other elements in the sun? I hunted up a table (source: NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center) listing the sun's elemental composition, which we know from analysis of its spectral signature. I'm sure you're not surprised that hydrogen is the most abundant element. The sun is constantly fusing hydrogen into helium, but don't expect the ratio of hydrogen to helium to change anytime soon. The sun is 4.5 billion years old and has converted about half of the hydrogen in its core into helium. It still has about 5 billion years before the hydrogen runs out. Elements in the Sun Element Hydrogen Helium Oxygen Carbon Nitrogen Silicon Magnesium Neon Iron Sulfur % of total atoms 91.2 8.7 0.078 0.043 0.0088 0.0045 0.0038 0.0035 0.030 0.015 % of total mass 71.0 27.1 0.97 0.40 0.096 0.099 0.076 0.058 0.014 0.040

11