Astrophysics Group Blog

Astrophysics Group member Caitriona Jackman is co-convenor of an exciting conference to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland from March 10-15 2013. The schedule for the conference has just been finalised and can be found here:
http://chapman.agu.org/magnetotails/program/schedule/
The topic of the conference is “Fundamental Properties and Processes of Magnetotails” and will involve about 100 participants from all over the world, discussing processes in the magnetotails of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The location is spectacular and we have made links with the Icelandic meterological office to provide us with daily forecasts for auroral viewing conditions. Excursions to the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle are planned.
Although the scientific programme has been finalised, it is still possible for interested people to attend. The registration deadline is January 30th 2013.
Don’t miss out on your chance to discuss fascinating science in a spectacular environment!

Here at UCL we have a large group of people interested in astrochemistry — the study of atoms and molecules in space, particularly their formation and destruction. There are only a few groups in the UK that specialise in this field, and the group at UCL is one of the most prolific, looking at astrochemistry from observational, theoretical and even experimental angles.

Astrochemistry is a relatively young field: the first molecule discovered in space was CH, back in 1937, but the subject only boomed in the 1970s and 1980s when advances in technology meant that the submillimetre window through the atmosphere became readily available [see Fig. 1: The Rise of Molecular Complexity].

Fig 1. The Rise of Molecular Complexity.
As technology and our understanding of astrochemistry has developed, our knowledge of the molecular universe has also increased.

Now we have detected about 175 molecules in space, ranging from small, common molecules like CO (carbon monoxide), H₂O (water), HCN (hydrogen cyanide) through to “large”, “complex” molecules (by astrochemical standards) like HC₁₁N (a long carbon chain) and C₆H₆ (the cyclic, aromatic molecule, benzene). In the last couple of years we’ve been amazed by discoveries of huge molecules: C₆₀ and C₇₀, 3D carbon cages reminiscent of footballs or geodesic domes.

I’m currently involved in a large project to look at a family of complex molecules with the formula C₂H₄O₂. This is a family of three isomers (different structural arrangements), which are named methyl formate (HCOOCH₃), glycolaldehyde (CH₂OHCHO) and acetic acid (CH₃COOH). The middle member is particularly interesting to us, since it is relatively rare, but has the interesting property that it leads to prebiotic molecules… molecules which are connected to life. Professor Serena Viti was involved in the discovery of glycolaldehyde (a simple sugar) in a high-mass star-forming region several years ago, and since then we have been investigating how such a complex organic molecule could be formed in space. Only a few months ago, some other researchers reported the detection of glycolaldehyde in a low-mass star-forming region — a region which will give birth to solar-type stars. So this field is of particular current interest.

Our studies show that the keys to the formation of glycolaldehyde are the surfaces of solid particles in space, particles that astronomers call “dust”. In the cold regions where stars begin to form, interstellar gases can freeze onto the surface of these dust grains, in much the same way as frost will form on fallen leaves on a cold winter’s morning. These surfaces reduce the energies needed for complex molecules to form — they catalyse the reactions. It is only in this way that many of the complex molecules we find in star-forming regions can form efficiently. Recently we published a research paper looking at possible chemical routes to the formation of glycolaldehyde. It seems clear that it cannot form from gaseous material; reactions are just too slow in the cold temperatures of space. Of the mechanisms catalysed by dust grain surfaces, we identified a couple of strong possibilities, based on the predicted abundance of available reactants and other chemical and physical considerations. We did this via a computer simulation which ties together a network of thousands of interacting chemical reactions — this is really the only way which we can recreate the conditions of space, since we can’t go there ourselves to do experiments. It is a very successful technique for explaining chemistry throughout the universe.

So now we’re very close to understanding how sugar can form in the depths of space. Since we’ve narrowed it down to a couple of possible pathways, we can move to the vacuum chambers of the UCL chemical laboratories to discover which is the mechanism that dominates. In comparison to computer simulations, experiments are long, difficult and expensive, but they are a useful validation of computer simulations. Stay tuned for further updates in the story of the sweet Cosmos.

– Dr. Paul M. Woods

A few more photographs:

(1) The Giant Buddha at Kamakura:

(2) Lotus blossom in the garden of a Buddhist temple, Kyoto:

Photographs of these two places in Tokyo are here.

Dear Astrophysics folks

I thought this blog would be a good place to say ‘hello’ from the Insitute of Space Science here at JAXA in Japan. I’ve been here for three weeks now, and am visiting colleagues Adam Masters and Sarah Badman, both involved with Cassini and both now working as ‘International Young Top Fellows’ at JAXA. It’s a great institute to visit, everyone has been incredibly polite and friendly. Tokyo is an amazing city, a real juxtaposition of traditional Eastern culture and more familiar Western styles. I’m trying slowly to learn some of the written language, it does have a logic to it and a good place to start is the ‘katakana’ symbols which are used to phonetically sound out foreign words – most of the products you buy from the supermarket bear their English names, transcribed as katakana. I have also visited Yokohama, a bayside area in Tokyo, which has a beautiful art museum, whose building was designed by Kenzo. The food is terrific, but I would say that since I’m a big fan of seafood and Japanese cuisine in general. On the research front, it’s great to be able to return to such things in a serious way, and I hope to have a couple of draft papers completed by the time  I leave at the end of September. Greetings to all at UCL and I’ll try and do a few more posts while I’m here. It’s the height of summer here in Tokyo so soaring daytime temperatures and high humidity – thankfully, my quarters at the JAXA lodge are very comfortable and air-conditioned Talk soon, Nick

This is the official blog for the Astrophysics Group at University College London.  The UCL Astrophysics Group forms part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and we are one of the largest Astrophysics groups in the UK.

We have started this blog in order to share information with the public and with our colleagues in academia about what we do in the group and, more generally, what it is like to be an astrophysicist.  We hope to make posts about research projects we are working on, reports back from interesting meetings and, public events involving members of our group.

Posting to this blog as a group will be a learning experience for all of us, so please bear with us as we discover the best ways of using this technology and, hopefully you’ll see something that’s of interest to you in the future.