[astroseminar at Sapienza] 22/05/2018 at 16:00: Cecilia Ceccarelli (SEMINARIO GENERALE)

[Elia Battistelli]

GENERAL COLLOQUIUM OF THE PHYSICS DEPARTMENT

Title: The dawn of organic chemistry in space
Speaker:  Cecilia Ceccarelli
Institution: Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
Date: Tuesday, 22 May 2018
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Aula Conversi, Marconi Building, Dept. of Physics, Sapienza 
University

Abstract:
Since a long time, it has been known that molecular complexity in space 
can reach amazingly high levels. Alcohols, sugars and amino acids are 
detected in meteoritic and cometary material; some of them are even 
detected in regions where solar-like stars and planetary systems are 
forming today. These evidences led the Nobel prize laureate C.De Duve to 
affirm that the “seeds of life are universal” and that “life is an 
obligatory manifestation of matter, written into the fabric of the 
Universe”. So far, the smallest seeds, which I will call here iCOMs (for 
interstellar Complex Organic Molecules), are detected in a bit more than 
a dozen solar-like star forming regions. New facilities, like IRAM/NOEMA 
and ALMA, are increasing this small number and providing images of these 
regions with unprecedented precision and sensibility. At the same time, 
new laboratory experiments and quantum chemistry theoretical studies 
suggest previously unpredicted routes of iCOMs synthesis. The 
combination of all these new works is challenging old theories and 
provoking the emergence of new ones. In this talk, I will present these 
recent advances and debates, and the new worldwide large projects whose 
goal is to unravel the dawn of organic chemistry in space.

web: https://agenda.infn.it/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=15046