[MOS] November 8, 2011

[Zina M Queen]

Seminar on
Modern Optics and Spectroscopy
Exotic Molecules in the Laboratory and in Space

Michael McCarthy,
Harvard University
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Discoveries of new molecules in space help to provide a foundation for understanding the role of the chemical bond and organic chemistry on a cosmic scale and, by extension, an opportunity to begin to address the interesting but far more complicated questions of biological and chemical origins, and the issues that relate to them.  Most of the organic molecules so far detected in the interstellar gas -- the space between stars -- by radio telescopes are carbon chains, a configuration of linear carbon which is unstable at high density, and therefore unfamiliar on Earth.  For this reason, laboratory detection until quite recently has lagged astronomical discovery of many new carbon
molecules.  The application of Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy to supersonic molecular beams has now largely overcome this obstacle, yielding in the past decade the laboratory detection of nearly two hundred new species in our laboratory. These include long carbon chains,  planar rings, silicon- and sulfur-bearing molecules, and both positively and negatively-charged ions; nearly 10% of these have already been found in space with powerful radio facilities, including negatively-charged ions for the first time.  This talk will give a broad overview of our laboratory and astronomical work, and describe new initiatives now underway.
Grier Room, MIT Bldg 34-401
Refreshments served after the lecture
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