Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology

Evolution of preplanetary matter in analogs of the early solar system

PI: Douglas Whittet

The aim of the proposed research is to understand the evolution of preplanetary matter (dust and ices) from molecular clouds to protoplanetary disks in regions where stars that might host habitable planets are being born. Although the presence of presolar interstellar matter in primitive Solar-System bodies is widely acknowledged, we lack a comprehensive general model that explains the causal relationship between them and predicts its form in different situations. We would like to not only understand the processes by which interstellar matter evolves but also predict the organic inventories of early solar systems in both low- and high-mass star formation regions. Recent studies have identified numerous young solar analogs in a wide range of environments, from isolated systems and loose, low-mass associations to giant molecular clouds that spawn luminous clusters. We propose to examine such analogs in each of these situations, to fully explore possible scenarios for the birth of our Solar System, and hence to provide discrimination between possible astrochemical models.
Our proposal has specific relevance to the NASA objective of delineating galactic and planetary conditions conducive to the origin of life. To this end, we will utilize the wealth of new observational data available (or soon to be available) from NASA facilities such as the Sptizer Space Telescope (SST) and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), as well as from ground-based telescopes. Infrared spectroscopy is our primary tool for remote study of preplanetary materials. Astronomical observations will be interpreted with the aid of data for laboratory analogs and chemical models.