Search in the Universe for Seed Materials towards Life: Interdisciplinary Research between Astronomy and Spectroscopy

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H03646
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Principal Investigator: Ohishi Masatoshi 国立天文台, 天文データセンター, 准教授 (00183757)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 廣田 朋也 国立天文台, 水沢VLBI観測所, 助教 (10325764) ; 野村 英子 東京工業大学, 理学院, 准教授 (20397821) ; 尾関 博之 東邦大学, 理学部, 教授 (70260031) ; 小林 かおり 富山大学, 大学院理工学研究部(理学), 教授 (80397166) ; 齋藤 正雄 国立天文台, TMT推進室, 教授 (90353424) ; 梅本 智文 国立天文台, 野辺山宇宙電波観測所, 助教 (30290886)
• Research Collaborator: SUZUKI Taiki 自然科学研究機構, アストロバイオロジーセンター, 特任研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アストロバイオロジー / 電波天文学 / 分子分光 / 化学シミュレーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We aimed in verifying the "exogenous delivery" hypothesis -- prebiotic organics that formed in star and planet forming regions were incorporated into comets and/or meteorites, then delivered to primitive planets including the Earth. Towards this goal, in laboratories, we succeeded in measuring precise transition frequencies of prebiotic molecules. Then we observed these species by the ALMA and the 45m radio telescope, and obtained a hint of glycine, the simplest amino acid, in a star and planet forming region. Although this is not a secure detection, it would be foreseen to verify the exogenous delivery hypothesis by advancing our research results.

Since the exogenous delivery hypothesis can be applied to exogenous-Earths, it is essential to advance our research results towards investigating extraterrestrial lives in future.

Free Research Field

電波天文学、アストロバイオロジー、星間化学