Chemistry In The Galactic Center
Gas and dust in the Galactic Center are subjected to energetic processing by intense UV radiation fields, widespread shocks, enhanced rates of cosmic-rays and X-rays, and strong magnetic fields.
The Giant Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center present a rich chemistry in a wide variety of chemical compounds, some of which are prebiotic. We have conducted unbiased, ultrasensitive and broadband spectral surveys toward the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud located in the Galactic Center, which have yielded the discovery of new complex organic molecules proposed as precursors of the “building blocks” of life.
I will review our current understanding of the chemistry in Galactic Center molecular clouds, and summarize the recent detections toward G+0.693-0.027 of key precursors of prebiotic chemistry.
All this suggests that the ISM is an important source of prebiotic material that could have contributed to the process of the origin of life on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe.
Example of precursors of ribonucleotides, amino acids and nucleobases proposed in the chemical schemes of Powner et al. (2009), Patel et al. (2015) and Kitadai & Maruyama (2018). This Figure has been updated from the work of Jimenez-Serra et al. (2020) with the recent detection of 1,2-ethenediol (Rivilla et al. 2022a). Solid boxes indicate molecules that have been detected in space, while black dotted boxes denote those species that remain undetected. Arrows show the possible synthesis pathways among the different molecular species within the scheme. The names of the molecules shown are: (1) Hydrogen Cyanide; (2) Formaldehyde; (3) Glycolonitrile; (4) Glycolaldehyde; (5) Cyanamide; (6) Glycolic acid; (7) Cyanide; (8) Methanimine; (9) 1,2-ethenediol; (10) Cyanohydrin; (11) Urea; (12) 3-Oxopropanenitrile; (13) Cyanoacetylene; (14) Cyanomethanimine; (15) Aminoacetonitrile; (16) Glyceraldehyde; (17) 2-aminooxazole; (18) Cytosine; (19) Adenine; (20) Glycine; (21) Dihydroxyacetone (DHA); (22) Glycerol; (23) Beta-ribocytidine-2’,3’-cyclic phosphate (pyrimidine ribonucleotide). — astro-ph.GA
Izaskun Jimenez-Serra
Comments: Chapter for the Proceedings of the Kavli-IAU 383 Astrochemistry Symposium. 14 pages, 4 figures and 2 tables
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2501.01782 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2501.01782v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.01782
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Submission history
From: Izaskun Jimenez-Serra
[v1] Fri, 3 Jan 2025 12:31:24 UTC (1,404 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.01782
Astrobiology,
