Exploring Chemical Evolution in Solar-Type Protostars by ALMA

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25400223
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (2015); The University of Tokyo (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: Sakai Nami 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 坂井星・惑星形成研究室, 准主任研究員 (70533553)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMAMOTO Satoshi 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科, 教授 (80182624)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 電波天文学 / 星間分子 / 星形成 / 惑星起源

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By using the state-of the art telescope like ALMA, we explored chenmical evolution in star forming regions. It has so far been believed that interstellar matter is smoothly brought into a gas disk forming a planetary system as it is. In the observation of the young protostar L1527 in Taurus, We have identified the radius of the centrifugal barrier of the infalling gas for the first time, and have discovered a drastic chemical change there. Since the centrifugal barrier can be regarded as the outermost boundary of the protostellar disk, the results clearly demonstrate that the infalling gas and dust are chemically processed when they go into the disk. We have also found that the more evolved protostar, TMC-1A, shows similar chemical change. Furthermore, we started unbiased chemical survery toward one large molecular cloud complex (Perseus). This will allow us to know how protostellar source shows chemical variety.

Free Research Field

電波天文学