Astrochemistry

Efficient Surface Formation Route of Interstellar Hydroxylamine through NO Hydrogenation

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
astro-ph.GA
May 30, 2017
Filed under
Efficient Surface Formation Route of Interstellar Hydroxylamine through NO Hydrogenation

Hydroxylamine (NH2OH) is one of the potential precursors of complex pre-biotic species in space. Here we present a detailed experimental study of hydroxylamine formation through nitric oxide (NO) surface hydrogenation for astronomically relevant conditions.

The aim of this work is to investigate hydroxylamine formation efficiencies in polar (water-rich) and non-polar (carbon monoxide-rich) interstellar ice analogues. A complex reaction network involving both final (N2O, NH2OH) and intermediate (HNO, NH2O, etc.) products is discussed.

The main conclusion is that hydroxylamine formation takes place via a fast and barrierless mechanism and it is found to be even more abundantly formed in a water-rich environment at lower temperatures. In parallel, we experimentally verify the non-formation of hydroxylamine upon UV photolysis of NO ice at cryogenic temperatures as well as the non-detection of NC- and NCO-bond bearing species after UV processing of NO in carbon monoxide-rich ices.

Our results are implemented into an astrochemical reaction model, which shows that NH2OH is abundant in the solid phase under dark molecular cloud conditions. Once NH2OH desorbs from the ice grains, it becomes available to form more complex species (e.g., glycine and beta-alanine) in gas phase reaction schemes.

Efficient Surface Formation Route of Interstellar Hydroxylamine through NO Hydrogenation II: the multilayer regime in interstellar relevant ices

Gleb Fedoseev, Sergio Ioppolo, Thanja Lamberts, Junfeng Zhen, Herma M. Cuppen, Harold Linnartz
(Submitted on 25 May 2017)

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Journal reference: Journal of Chemical Physics, Volume 137, Issue 5, page 054714 (2012)
DOI: 10.1063/1.4738893
Cite as: arXiv:1705.09175 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:1705.09175v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
Submission history
From: Gleb Fedoseev
[v1] Thu, 25 May 2017 13:37:49 GMT (4072kb)
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/1705.09175

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻