The astrochemical trail of our origin

Venue: Zoom videoconference (in order to receive the access link please write to: df.supportstaff [at] unitn.it) - 2 p.m.

Speaker

Prof.ssa Cecilia Ceccarelli - Universitè Grenoble Alpes, IPAG, France

Abstract

The Solar System was born 4.5 billions years ago, after a complex process whose details are not fully understood. The large number of detected extrasolar planets tells us that they are a common product of the star formation process, their variety that there are many ways of building them. How can then we recover the path followed by the Solar System?

Understanding the Solar-type star formation process currently taking place in the Milky Way is mandatory to answer this question. Astrochemistry, the science of how atoms and molecules combine  and evolve in the interstellar medium, is a powerful diagnostics to follow the evolution that turns a molecular cloud dense clump into a planetary system. But it can only be exploited once we know how to interpret the chemistry occurring in the exotic conditions of the interstellar medium, where quantum chemical effects dominate.

In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the major progresses of our understanding in astrochemistry and, more specifically, the one involved in the Solar System formation history.

Scientific Coordinator

Albino Perego