Astrochemistry
Gianfranco Vidali
Syracuse University
The interstellar medium (ISM), the space between stars, is not empty;
indeed, it is from material in the interstellar medium that stars are
formed. In turn, when stars die, new material synthesized in stars is
ejected in their surroundings. The detection of molecules and dust
grains in space that began in the 50's and 60's with the use of
radioastronomy has opened up exciting venues of research. But
observations alone are not enough to learn about the mechanisms,
conditions and rates of the formation of molecules. In the last decade,
researchers were able to obtain in their laboratories realistic
simulations of key astrophysical environments; in this talk I will
illustrate how these experiments are done and what they tell us about
the ISM, from the production of the simplest and most abundant
molecule, molecular hydrogen, to the formation of biogenic molecules.