Dust Motions in Magnetized Turbulence: Source of Chemical Complexity

TL;DR

This study uses multi-scale shock-compression and ab initio molecular dynamics to simulate dust grain collisions in space, revealing shock-driven synthesis of complex prebiotic molecules like formamide and amino acids, advancing understanding of chemical complexity in space.

Contribution

It introduces a first-principles simulation approach to explore shock-induced chemical synthesis on icy dust grains, uncovering pathways to biologically relevant molecules in space environments.

Findings

Formamide synthesized at shock velocities of 7 km/s and higher.

Increased shock velocity leads to larger quantities of formamide.

Diverse amino acid precursors, including glycine and vinylamine, formed at 10 km/s.

Abstract

Notwithstanding manufacture of complex organic molecules from impacting cometary and icy planet surface analogues is well-established, dust grain-grain collisions driven by turbulence in interstellar or circumstellar regions may represent a parallel chemical route toward the shock synthesis of prebiotically relevant species. Here we report on a study, based on the multi-scale shock-compression technique combined with ab initio molecular dynamics approaches, where the shock-waves-driven chemistry of mutually colliding isocyanic acid (HNCO) containing icy grains has been simulated by first-principles. At the shock wave velocity threshold triggering the chemical transformation of the sample (7 km/s), formamide is the first synthesized species representing thus the spring-board for the further complexification of the system. In addition, upon increasing the shock impact velocity, formamide is formed in progressively larger amounts. More interestingly, at the highest velocity considered (10 km/s), impacts drive the production of diverse carbon-carbon bonded species. In addition to glycine, the building block of alanine (i.e., ethanimine) and one of the major components of a plethora of amino-acids including, e.g., asparagine, cysteine, and leucine (i.e., vinylamine) have been detected after shock compression of samples containing the most widespread molecule in the universe (H2) and the simplest compound bearing all the primary biogenic elements (HNCO). The present results indicate novel chemical pathways toward the chemical complexity typical of interstellar and circumstellar regions.