Re: To Grow, Stars and Planets Need Space Dust ... and Formaldehyde?

From: vonroach (hadrainc_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 07/13/04 

Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 22:39:29 GMT

On 13 Jul 2004 09:56:25 -0700, baalke@earthlink.net (Ron) wrote:

>http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/spacedus.htm
>
>TO GROW, STARS AND PLANETS NEED SPACE DUST... AND FORMALDEHYDE?
>Ohio State University News Release
>June 30, 2004
>
>COLUMBUS, Ohio - Scientists at Ohio State University have found that a
>formaldehyde-based chemical is 100 times more common in parts of our
>galaxy than can be explained.
>
>The finding could change ideas about how organic molecules form in the
>universe, and how those molecules' critical interaction with dust causes
>stars and planets to form.
>
>The scientists compared the results of experiments from an international
>team of chemists to telescopic measurements of the amount of methyl
>formate -- a product of alcohol and formaldehyde -- in the swirling dust
>clouds that dot our Milky Way galaxy. On Earth, methyl formate
>is commonly used as an insecticide.
>
>Based on telescope data, if the gaseous methyl formate condensed into
>liquid form, a typical dust cloud would contain a thousand trillion
>trillion gallons of the chemical.
>
>Interstellar dust clouds contain the chemical seeds of new stars and
>planetary systems, explained Eric Herbst Distinguished Professor of
>Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Ohio State. Most people are probably
>familiar with the dust cloud known as the Horsehead Nebula
>in the constellation Orion.
>
>While scientists have long known that hydrogen is the most common
>chemical element in the universe, just 10 years ago Herbst -- a
>professor of physics, chemistry, and astronomy -- and his colleagues
>discovered that there were also large quantities of alcohol in dust
>clouds in space. The presence of methyl formate suggests that other
>molecules may play a more prominent role in star and planet formation
>than scientists ever suspected.
>
>"Even using our best models of interstellar chemistry, we still don't
>fully understand how these molecules could have formed," Herbst said.
>"Clearly, something else is going on."
>
>Herbst reported the new results June 23 at the International Symposium
>on Molecular Spectroscopy in Columbus.
>
>Three groups of chemists from the United States, Canada, and Norway had
>previously conducted laboratory experiments to determine how alcohol and
>other molecules produce methyl formate. Herbst and Ohio State
>postdoctoral researcher Helen Roberts used that data to
>construct a new model of how such reactions happen in space, and then
>used the model to predict how much methyl formate would be found in the
>typical interstellar dust cloud.
>
>Next, the Ohio State scientists consulted the radio spectrum of the dust
>clouds, which gives them the unique chemical signatures of the different
>molecules floating inside.
>
>The spectra showed that the average ratio of hydrogen molecules to
>molecules of methyl formate was a billion to one. But the model that
>Herbst and Roberts derived had predicted only a fraction of that amount.
>
>"We calculated the ratio to be 100 billion to one, so the model must be
>deficient," Herbst said.
>
>Scientists will have to refine the models before they can truly know how
>stars and planets form, he said.
>
>According to accepted theory, gas molecules floating in these clouds
>must join and nuclear reactions must begin before stars can form. Dust
>particles are key to the process because they provide a surface for
>reactions to take place.
>
>Among their future goals, Herbst, Roberts, and their colleagues want to
>determine exactly what space dust is made of and what the surface
>texture is like, since both would affect chemical reactions -- a task
>that amounts to studying individual dust grains thousands of light years
>away.
>
>Modeling such large, complex systems requires a great deal of computing
>power, and measuring the actual amounts of chemicals in these faraway
>clouds is difficult. Herbst said that supercomputers and telescopes are
>just beginning to advance to the point where such things are possible.
>In the future, he would like to form a consortium of researchers in
>molecular astronomy to pool ideas and resources.
>
>This work was funded by the National Science Foundation.
>
Sounds interesting. I take it they checked to make sure the
observatory wasn't treated for bugs at the time of the findings.

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