Photoprocessing & Spectroscopy Lab

Ejection of molecules from ice-covered dust exposed to ultraviolet photons, known as photodesorption, is summoned to account for gas abundances in cold regions. Carbon monoxide (CO) is the second most abundant ice component in interstellar clouds. Photon energy transfer between CO molecules can eventually excite molecules on the ice surface, allowing desorption. CO photodesorption drops […]

The absence of complicated species from the cold gas in protoplanetary disks, and the presence of abundant CO, HCO and H2CO and negligible CH3OH, is compatible with the simulated realistic ice with X-ray. The particularly small abundances of other COMs in the cold parts of the disk are formed in the ice bulk but not […]

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array has allowed a detailed observation of molecules in protoplanetary disks, which can evolve toward solar systems like our own. While CO, H2CO are often abundant species in the cold zones of the disk, CH3CN are only found in a few regions, and more-complex organic molecules are not observed. We simulate, experimentally, […]