Skip to Content

Search: {{$root.lsaSearchQuery.q}}, Page {{$root.page}}

SPECIAL SEMINAR<br>Simulating Pre-biotic Proto-stellar Chemistry in the Age of ALMA: The Curious Case of Glycine</br>

  1. All News & Features
  2. All Events
    1. Archived Events
      1. 2013
      2. 2012
      3. 2011
      4. 2010
      5. 2009
      6. 2008
      7. 2007
      8. 2006
      9. 2005
      10. 2003
      11. 2002
      12. 2001
      13. 2000
      14. 1999
      15. HEP Astro
      16. Astronomy Colloquium
      17. Biophysics Seminar
      18. CM - AMO Seminars
      19. CM Theory Seminars
      20. Complex Systems
      21. Department Colloquia
      22. Quantitative Biology Seminars
      23. HET Brown Bag Series
      24. HET Seminars
      25. Life After Grad School Seminars
      26. Farrand Memorial Lecture
      27. Workshops & Conferences
      28. Miscellaneous
        1. Ralph Baldwin Prize in Astrophysics and Space Science: Accreting Black Holes: Blasts from the Past
        2. PHYSICS 391 OPEN HOUSE CELEBRATION: Introduction to Modern Physics Laboratory
        3. COLLEGIATE PROFESSORSHIP INAUGURAL LECTURE: Heat Rises: 100 Years of Rayleigh-BĂ©nard Convection
        4. CANCELLED Due to Travel Issues from East Coast Blizzard! ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM: Global Radiation MHD Simulations of Black Hole Accretion Disks
        5. MICHIGAN THEATER SCIENCE ON SCREEN: Physicist Tim Chupp Presents After Documentary
        6. <b>ICAM EMERGENCE SYMPOSIUM 2015</b><Br>Emergence: Compelling Examples and Unifying Approaches
        7. <b>SPECIAL SEMINAR</b><Br>Electrically Controlled Quibits in Silicon
        8. <b>SPECIAL COSMOLOGY SEMINAR</b><br>Testing Gravity Using Galaxy Redshift Surveys and CMB
        9. <b>COSMOLOGY - ASTROPHYSICS SEMINAR</b><br>Evading Non-Linearities: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations at the Linear Point
        10. Cosmology - Asrophysics Seminar: Evading Non-Linearities: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations at the Linear Point (Wed, 14 Oct 2015)
        11. <b>COSMOLOGY - ASTROPHYSICS SEMINAR</b><br>Cosmic Microwave Background Power Asymmetry and Non-Gaussianity
        12. <b>SPECIAL COSMOLOGY SEMINAR</b><br>CMB Cosmology with ACT, Planck and ACTPol
        13. SPECIAL COSMOLOGY SEMINAR
        14. <b>SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE<br>From the Big Bang to the End of the Time: Scientific Creativity and the Limits of Knowledge</b>
        15. <b>DPF2015</b>
        16. <b>Strongly Correlated Topological Insulators: SmB6 and Beyond Conference</b>
        17. SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE<br>Cooking up Cosmology with the Dark Energy Detectives
        18. <i>Jeweled Net of the Vast Invisible:<br> an experience of dark matter</i><br>Live Performance and Preview
        19. DES @ Michigan Collaboration Meeting
        20. SPECIAL PUBLIC LECTURE<br>2015 Ralph B. Baldwin Award Lecture in Astrophysics and Space Sciences<br><b>Featuring: Physics Alumnus<br>Dr. Tomasz Biesiadzinski</b><br><i>Unbiasing Cosmological Surveys</i></b>
        21. <b>2015 Distinguished University Innovator Award<br><i>An Academic's Adventures in Business</i></b>
        22. ASTRONOMY MEETING<br>Compact Objects in Michigan
        23. ASTRONOMY<br>Undergraduate Poster Session
        24. Special Physics Related Event<br><i>Orbit Design</i> - Featuring Pre-Performance Talk by Professor Robert Savit</b>
        25. Dissertation Defense: Vibrational Probe and Methods Development for Studying the Ultrafast Dynamics of Preferential Solvation of Biomolecules by 2D-IR
        26. Watch Space Jam Movie, Post Movie Physics of Basketball and Cartoon Physics Talk with Professor Tim Chupp
        27. 2015 HENRY RUSSEL LECTURE<br>Featuring Professor Homer A. Neal<br><i>Beyond Sputnik: Challenges Facing America's National Science Policies</i>
        28. BIOCOMPLEXITY SEMINAR<br>Two Vignettes in Computational Neuroscience: From Data to Models
        29. 2015 APS CONFERENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN IN PHYSICS
        30. MCTP HET BROWN BAG <br> Renyi Entropy, Stationarity, and Entanglement of the Conformal Scalar
        31. BIOCOMPLEXITY SEMINAR<br>Network Analysis of Structure-Function Relationships in Neurobiology
        32. TA-YOU WU LECTURE IN PHYSICS<br>The Universe: Continuing Surprises
        33. BIOCOMPLEXITY SEMINAR <br> The Dynamics of Calcium: Oscillations and Waves, Experiments and Theory
        34. MIRA & MCTP Sponsored Presentation<br><i>Stars with Neutron Cores</i>
        35. Special MCTP Theory Seminar<br><i>A Twistor View of String Theory</i>
        36. SPECIAL CONDENSED MATTER SEMINAR<br>Topological Soft Matter: From Linkages to Kink
        37. 2014 Decentralization Conference
        38. 2014 Symposium on Radiation Measurements and Applications (SORMA XV)
        39. The Department of Physics Graduation and Awards Ceremony
        40. SPECIAL MCTP COLLOQUIUM<br>Groundbreaking Discovery of Gravitational Waves from Inflation in BICEP2 Cosmic Microwave Detector
        41. SPECIAL CONDENSED MATTER SEMINAR<br>Measurements of Superconductivity Instabilities in Multi-orbital Systems with Spin-orbit Coupling</br>
        42. HOMER NEAL SYMPOSIUM
        43. <i>Jeweled Net of the Vast Invisible: An Experience of Dark Matter</i>
        44. SPECIAL SCREENING OF <i>PARTICLE FEVER</i>
        45. PHYSICS RESEARCH POSTER SESSION
        46. SPECIAL SEMINAR<br>Successfully Publishing in Physics Review Letters/The Physical Review
        47. SPECIAL SEMINAR<br>Simulating Pre-biotic Proto-stellar Chemistry in the Age of ALMA: The Curious Case of Glycine</br>
        48. SPECIAL COSMOLOGY SEMINAR<br>Consistency Tests of Gravity Using Large Scale Structure Dynamics
      29. Saturday Morning Physics
      30. Special Lectures
      31. Search Events
  3. Special Lectures
  4. K-12 Programs
  5. Saturday Morning Physics
  6. Seminars & Colloquia
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
5:00 AM
340 West Hall

Hosted by the Department of Astronomy &amp; Biophysics

Numerous complex organic molecules (COMs) are detected toward star-forming cores known as "hot cores". Aliphatic molecules of up to 12 atoms have so far been detected, including alcohols, esters, ethers and carboxylic acids. Chemical/physical simulations now suggest that many interstellar COMs are the product of UV processing of simple organic ices on the surfaces of dust grains. The formation of these molecules in protostellar envelopes may be the prelude to the development of further pre-biotic and biotic chemistry throughout the star- and planet-formation process, and the eventual incorporation into planetary bodies of molecules that are essential for the emergence of life. However, in spite of the detection of many similar molecules, the simplest amino acid, glycine, still has yet to be found toward any interstellar source.

High-sensitivity/resolution observations with the new ALMA telescope are likely to throw up many surprises in the search for new molecules. New simulations must be ready both to explain the detailed chemistry of interstellar COM formation and to take account of observed physical structure in proto-stellar sources, in order to bridge the gap between theoretical chemical abundances and observable spectral signatures.

I will present recent chemical/spectral models of complex organic chemistry in star-forming regions, with a focus on the elusive amino acid glycine. I will discuss its possible grain-surface formation; the potential for detection of glycine with ALMA; the importance of translating chemical models into full spectral simulations; and the future application of advanced pre-biotic chemistry models to new astrophysical regimes.

Speaker: