Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) Distinguished Visiting Professor Colloquium: Complex Organics in Space: a changing view of the cosmos

Planetary explorations have revealed that complex organics are widely present in the Solar System. Infrared spectroscopic observations have discovered that complex organics are synthesised in large quantities in planetary nebulae and distributed throughout the Galaxy. Signatures of organics are found in distant galaxies, as early as 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. A number of unsolved spectral phenomena such as diffuse interstellar bands, extended red emissions, 220 nm feature, and unidentified infrared emission bands are likely to originate from organics. In this talk, we will discuss what are the possible chemical structures of the carriers of these phenomena, and how these organics are synthesised abiotically in the Universe.