The interstellar heritage of comets

Comets are frozen fossils from the formation of our solar system, and studying their chemical composition can provide useful information about the chemical and physical processes that occurred during the early stages of evolution of our planetary system, as well as the origins of life on early Earth. Furthermore, the comparison of the relative amounts of different molecular species in comets (eg., H2CO, CH3OH, NH3, …) with similar values and ratios found in star- and planet-forming regions is fundamental to establish more stringent constraints on the thermal and chemical gradients that were present in our protoplanetary disk, and can reveal the degree of processing of material during the different stages of star formation (e.g., inheritance vs reset scenarios).

During the thesis the student will use a statistical approach to investigate possible correlations between one or more molecular species observed both in comets and star forming regions. Data are available from the literature and archives. Further datasets may be added from new observations obtained with state of the art instruments/telescopes like CRIRES+ at ESO-VLT and ALMA. The final goal is to determine if and how much the relative chemical abundances can change from the early phases of star formation to the final stage of planetary systems.

If you want to know more, please contact manuela.lippi@inaf.it or visit https://sites.google.com/inaf.it/prodisco-soe-0000188/home-page