NOVA: Dutch Recipe for Cosmic Glycerol

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NOVA: Dutch Recipe for Cosmic Glycerol

Post by bystander » Tue Jun 27, 2017 3:33 pm

Dutch Astronomers Discover Recipe to Make Cosmic Glycerol
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) | 2017 Jun 22
[img3=" Dutch astronomers from Leiden University created the biologically important molecule of glycerol at minus 250 degrees Celsius out of only carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The photo shows a close up of the ice cold vacuum chamber containing an artist impression of glycerol and the star forming area IRAS 16293-2422. (c) Harold Linnartz"]http://www.astronomie.nl/media/medialib ... rol_1.jpeg[/img3][hr][/hr]
A team of laboratory astrophysicists from Leiden University (the Netherlands) managed to make glycerol under conditions comparable to those in dark interstellar clouds. They allowed carbon monoxide ice to react with hydrogen atoms at minus 250 degrees Celsius. ...

In recent years more and more complex molecules have been identified in space. Their formation schemes are still under debate. Gleb Fedoseev ... : "The density of particles in space is extremely low and carbon monoxide is highly volatile. However, it freezes out on small dust particles at temperatures below minus 250 degrees Celsius where it acts as the seed for larger and more complex molecules, once it starts interacting with impacting hydrogen atoms."

In 2009, the Dutch researchers using their cryogenic hydrogen bombardment setups showed that carbon monoxide upon hydrogenation reacts to form formaldehyde (4 atoms) and methanol (6 atoms). By 2015, it became possible to make the sugar glycolaldehyde (8 atoms). And now, it has been possible to form glycerol (14 atoms). ...

The big question now is whether glycerol is also present in interstellar clouds. The molecules of formaldehyde, methanol and glycolaldehyde have already been detected by telescopes in the interstellar clouds of IRAS 16293-2422. This is a star forming region in the constellation of Ophiuchus at a distance of 460 light years from Earth. The young stars emerging here resemble our sun 4.5 billion years ago. The goal for the next year is to use ALMA, the world's largest radio telescope, to search for molecular fingerprints of glycerol, exactly there where also its precursors were identified. ...

Formation of Glycerol through Hydrogenation of CO Ice under Prestellar Core Conditions - Gleb Fedoseev et al
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