Possible routes for the Formation of Prebiotic Molecules in the Horsehead Nebula

TL;DR

This study investigates potential formation pathways of prebiotic nitrogen-containing molecules in space, highlighting efficient catalytic routes involving polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that could lead to detectable abundances of biologically relevant compounds.

Contribution

It introduces new simulation results identifying plausible production channels for N-heterocycles in interstellar environments, emphasizing catalytic roles of PAHs.

Findings

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can catalyze N-heterocycle formation.

Simulations show significant abundances of pyrrole and pyridine.

Multiple production pathways could be targeted in astrophysical observations.

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study concerning interstellar molecules which are useful for the bookkeeping of the organic content of the universe and for providing a glimpse into prebiotic conditions on Earth and in other environments in the universe. We explored production channels for astrobiological relevant nitrogen-bearing cyclic molecules (N-heterocycles), e. g. pyrrole and pyridine. The present simulations demonstrate how the exploration of a few possible routes of production of N-heterocycles resulted in significant abundances for these species. One particularly efficient class of channels for the production of N-heterocycles incorporates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as catalysts. Thereby, an exploration of a variety of production paths should reveal more species to be target of astrophysical observations.