Organic molecules in space

What techniques are used to identify molecules in space

 

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The method I'm familiar with is infrared spectroscopy.

 

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What kind of light source is used and how do you cancel the background ?

 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrochemistry

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207662/

We are all star stuff, nothing more, nothing less.
The stuff of life is everywhere we look.

 

Well according to wiki, the way I see there is to much hand waving. We all assume yes it is all the same technique as in regular lab . but it is far from been true.

 

Too much hand waving?

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Not at all. The methodology is a proven tried and tested means, nothing more, nothing less.
Since you asked the question, what do you have in mind.
Of course we also have molecules found on various meteorites.
Here's some more.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_interstellar_and_circumstellar_molecules

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrochemistry


http://www.ucl.ac.uk/phys/amopp/people/jonathan_tennyson/papers/311.pdf

8 SUMMARY
Molecules are widespread throughout the Universe, where the differing local conditions lead to different chemistries. A great variety of molecules, whose number is still steadily increasing, have been identified in space. At present by terrestrial standards, only relatively small molecules have been firmly identified outside our solar system. It would be a mistake to assume from the lack of positive detections that larger molecules do not occur naturally in space. The spectroscopic techniques that have proved so adept at characterizing small molecules in a wide range of locations are not so clear cut for large molecules. For larger molecules, the spectra suffer from not being fully resolved even using high-resolution studies and not being completely characteristic, especially if the molecules exist in close proximity with several similar species. This summary has not considered the molecular composition of the planets in our solar system. Spectroscopic techniques have been extensively applied to these objects, and all the planets with atmospheres have also been visited by unmanned satellites. The discovering of a large number of planets orbiting other stars has put an emphasis on trying to determine the molecular composition of these newly identified bodies. Such studies hold the key to determining whether we are the sole occupants of our galaxy. It can 12 Molecules in different environments thus be assumed that the study of molecules in space will remain a lively one for the foreseeable future.

 

Do you doubt that molecules exist in interplanetary/interstellar space timojin?
Every molecule in your body, every molecule in my body, was spewed forth by stars that came to the end of their lives.

 

I am familiar with absorption, emission and reflection , in absorption and reflection you need a a source ( light ) the in emission the chemical is the source .
for your absorption I assume your black body might be a star and your cell the space between the the star and your telescope and your scanner . I assume the density of the gas is probably very low. and since the telescope have to penetrate the earths atmosphere there might some heavy interference and you probably by some form have remove the background. Then to get a signal from space out of our solar system will
be low.
I can go with a similar scenario for emission and I visualize more problems as the source that heats the gas. I would like to know if the many mentioned in wiki come out from meteorites then from telescopic
finding . I will assume if the analysis is in space vehicles there will be less interference .
Ok clue me in.

 

On space there are millions of conditions . to make small molecules . Miller in the 195x had a one of possible conditions , so he firmed several amino acids and amines and others.
Your second paragraph is a little confusing . As a star burns out it implodes and produces a large amount of heat, so every organic molecule thing brakes down into gas. and inorganic molecules will react and condense.

 

My second paragraph is not my paragraph...It's from the above linked scientific paper.
But anyway, whatever your doubts, here some more links for you to learn......
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/outreach/Edu/importance.html

http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/science_on_the_edge/beyond_the_visible/


http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ask_astronomer/faq/obs.shtml


http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/outreach/Edu/ground.html


http://www.scienceclarified.com/He-In/Infrared-Astronomy.html

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/


http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/mission

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/The_largest_infrared_space_telescope

The last two or three links are all about our Space Infrared 'scopes, Spitzer and Herschel.

The following is on the JWST, to be launched in 2018.
Science/cosmology and NASA and other space orginizations seem to be handling infrared spectroscopy quite admirably.
OK, you have now many links that will give you the details far better than I can, so you should be quite able to clue yourself in.

 

List of interstellar and circumstellar molecules
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


extracts:

The first carbon-containing molecule detected in the interstellar medium was themethylidyne radical (CH) in 1937.[6] From the early 1970s it was becoming evident that interstellar dust consisted of a large component of more complex organic molecules (COMs),[7] probably polymers.

In 2004, scientists reported[10] detecting the spectral signatures of anthracene andpyrene in the ultraviolet light emitted by the Red Rectangle nebula (no other such complex molecules had ever been found before in outer space).

In 2010, fullerenes (or "buckyballs") were detected in nebulae.[12] Fullerenes have been implicated in the origin of life; according to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "It's possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth."[13]

In October 2011, scientists found using spectroscopy that cosmic dust contains complex organic compounds ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.[14][15][16]The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble the makeup of coal and petroleum; such chemical complexity was previously thought to arise only from living organisms.[14] These observations suggest that organic compounds introduced on Earth by interstellar dust particles could serve as basic ingredients for life due to their surface-catalytic activities

In August 2012, astronomers at Copenhagen University reported the detection of a specific sugar molecule, glycolaldehyde, in a distant star system. The molecule was found around the protostellarbinary IRAS 16293-2422, which is located 400 light years from Earth

In September 2012, NASA scientists reported that PAHs, subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation, andhydroxylation, to more complex organics — "a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively".

PAHs are found everywhere in deep space[24] and, in June 2013, PAHs were detected in the upper atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn.[25]


much much more at.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_interstellar_and_circumstellar_molecules

 

This is fine , Imagery what you can capture and separate the hotter spots from colder of a particular emission mixture body.
Imagery does not say much about chemical analysis .
Please don't misunderstand me it is very interesting work and it should pursued

 

This is science and this works and has been shown to be valid beyond any doubt.
Or do you have an agenda? What do you suggest?

 

No, I don't have any agenda , I know this is science , Should science all the time be accepted and not ask any questions?

Those nice picture using different wave length they are just saying to me the star is like a black body a heat source and you are filtering out different waves . But in reality it say very little what is there. It tells you something about the structure of the body. It is like looking at the sun with different filter , you might see flare or holes were eruption takes place .

 

Don't you? I find that hard to believe.
You have been given many expert takes on the subject of infrared spectroscopy over many decades and you doubt them all? On what grounds?

I suggest you read all the links I gave thouroughly and do some more research.
It's a tried, true and tested discipline.

 

O have worked as an analytical chemist on the ground & worked in research in other area, so I don't take things that are published as a gospel specially if the field is relatively new.

 

It isn't new.

 

http://www.universetoday.com/43201/infrared-spectroscopy/

Infrared spectroscopy is spectroscopy in the infrared (IR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is a vital part of infrared astronomy, just as it is in visual, or optical, astronomy (and has been since lines were discovered in the spectrum of the Sun, in 1802, though it was a couple of decades before Fraunhofer began to study them systematically).

 

As for me is what do you do with spectroscopy ? Analysis or lock for massive structure and position of a structure . Remember the post was molecules in space