Liv Hornekær and colleagues Alec Wodtke from Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences and Peter Saalfrank from University of Potsdam, who have been awarded a 12 million EURO European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant for the joint six-year project IRASTRO.
 

The aim of IRASTRO is to develop new methods to detect infrared signatures of single molecules formed through low temperature reactions on model ice systems. These methods will be used to explain reactions observed by telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The expertise of the three PI’s and close collaboration with Varun Verma from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), allows IRASTRO to combine chemistry and infrared spectroscopy, astrochemistry and surface science, superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) and theoretical quantum chemistry and dynamics.

By challenging the assumption that infrared emission is completely suppressed for molecules on surfaces, the project seeks to improve our fundamental understanding of low temperature chemistry taking place in ices and on ice surfaces typical of cold, dark interstellar clouds. JWST has made it possible to obtain infrared spectra of such ices, revealing the presence of complex organic molecules.  By investigating the impact of the local environment on the infrared spectra of individual molecules, IRASTRO will provide new tools to interpret JWST data of molecular ices.  These tools will also be used by researchers at Center for Interstellar Catalysis to help determine whether reactions in interstellar ices can lead to the formation of the molecular building blocks of life.

The IRASTRO project will start in the first half of 2025.

See ERC press release