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Gas-phase prebiotic chemistry in extraterrestrial environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Nadia Balucani
Nadia Balucani*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy email: nadia.balucani@unipg.it
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Abstract

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A variety of molecular species up to complex polyatomic molecules/radicals have been identified in many extraterrestrial gaseous environments, including interstellar clouds, cometary comae and planetary atmospheres. Amongst the identified molecules/radicals, a large percentage are organic in nature and encompass also prebiotic molecules. Different types of microscopic processes are believed to be involved in their formation, including surface processes, ion- and radical- molecule reactions. A thorough characterization of such a complex chemistry relies on a multi-disciplinary approach, where the observations are complemented by accurate chemical modeling. Unfortunately, a literature survey reveals that only a small percentage of the elementary reactions considered in the available models have been characterized in laboratory experiments. In this contribution, a brief overview will be given of recent experimental techniques that have allowed us to reach a better description of neutral-neutral gas-phase reactions, which might be responsible for the formation of simple prebiotic molecules.

Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Highlights H15: Highlights of Astronomy , November 2009 , pp. 682 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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