6 SCIENCE GOALS & OBJECTIVES: THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO COMPREHEND THE FORMATION OF A KEY CLASS OF ASTROBIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT MOLECULES - ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS - IN INTERSTELLAR ICES AS PRESENT IN COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS UPON INTERACTION WITH IONIZING RADIATION. COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS ARE CONSIDERED AS NURSERIES OF STARS AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. THE DENSEST PARTS OF THESE CLOUDS EVENTUALLY UNDERGO GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE TO FORM PRIMITIVE MATERIAL, WHICH IN TURN SUPPLIES THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. THEREFORE, ORGANIC MATERIAL SUCH AS ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, WHICH INITIALLY FORMED IN THE MOLECULAR CLOUD, COULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO COMETS AND PARENT BODIES OF METEORITES SUCH AS OF MURCHISON AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO EARLY EARTH. SIGNIFICANCE: OUR PROJECT HAS UNPRECEDENTED IMPLICATIONS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS: TO RATIONALIZE A POTENTIALLY EXOGENOUS SOURCE OF ORGANIC, WATER-SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS-BEARING COMPOUNDS THAT MIGHT HAVE INITIALIZED THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS CHEMISTRY ON EARLY EARTH, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AS DETECTED IN THE MURCHISON METEORITE, AND TO INTERPRET PROSPECTIVE DATA FROM THE ROSETTA MISSION ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. METHODOLOGY: OUR METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON CONDUCTING LABORATORY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS, WHICH MIMIC THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE, ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES, AND TRACING THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS ON LINE AND IN SITU IN THE SOLID STATE AND UPON WARM-UP OF THE IRRADIATED ICES IN THE GAS PHASE. WE EXPLOIT NOVEL, EMERGING LABORATORY TECHNIQUES, WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN PREVIOUS SIMULATION STUDIES. THESE TECHNIQUES ARE: PHOTOLYSIS OF ICES WITH MONO ENERGETIC PHOTONS, A CONCERTED ON LINE AND IN SITU INFRARED, RAMAN, AND ULTRAVIOLET-VISUAL (UVVIS) SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PHOTOLYZED ICES TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, AND - UPON THEIR RELEASE INTO THE GAS PHASE - FRAGMENT-FREE PHOTOIONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WITH TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) PHOTONS COUPLED WITH REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROSCOPY (RETOF-MS). NASA RELEVANCE: RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY OVERLAP WITH THE GOALS OF NASA'S EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM: TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED. IT COVERS THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF EVENTS AND MATERIALS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETS, SATELLITES, AND MINOR BODIES. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF GAS, DUST, AND ICE. OUR PROPOSAL TACKLES FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS WHICH EVENTUALLY PROVIDE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. OUR PROPOSAL ACCOUNTS FOR NASA'S GOAL TO INVESTIGATE VIA LABORATORY STUDIES THE BASIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS PROJECT IS VERY TIMELY, SINCE THE ROSETTA SPACECRAFT ARRIVED AT COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. PROSPECTIVE PUBLICALLY DISSEMINATED DATA ON THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY CAN BE COMPARED WITH THE NEWLY FORMED ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IDENTIFIED IN OUR STUDIES. OUR PROJECT PRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TIMED INTERDISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE KEY QUESTION (ORIGIN OF A KEY CLASS OF BIORELEVANT MOLECULES) AND TO SUPPORT A CONCERTED ATTACK FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS COMBINING RESULTS FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ULTIMATELY REVOLUTIONIZING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS. Funding Only Action ($2) 5/27/20 Not listed SCIENCE GOALS & OBJECTIVES: THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO COMPREHEND THE FORMATION OF A KEY CLASS OF ASTROBIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT MOLECULES - ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS - IN INTERSTELLAR ICES AS PRESENT IN COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS UPON INTERACTION WITH IONIZING RADIATION. COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS ARE CONSIDERED AS NURSERIES OF STARS AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. THE DENSEST PARTS OF THESE CLOUDS EVENTUALLY UNDERGO GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE TO FORM PRIMITIVE MATERIAL WHICH IN TURN SUPPLIES THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS THEIR MOONS AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. THEREFORE ORGANIC MATERIAL SUCH AS ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WHICH INITIALLY FORMED IN THE MOLECULAR CLOUD COULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO COMETS AND PARENT BODIES OF METEORITES SUCH AS OF MURCHISON AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO EARLY EARTH. SIGNIFICANCE: OUR PROJECT HAS UNPRECEDENTED IMPLICATIONS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS: TO RATIONALIZE A POTENTIALLY EXOGENOUS SOURCE OF ORGANIC WATER-SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS-BEARING COMPOUNDS THAT MIGHT HAVE INITIALIZED THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS CHEMISTRY ON EARLY EARTH TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AS DETECTED IN THE MURCHISON METEORITE AND TO INTERPRET PROSPECTIVE DATA FROM THE ROSETTA MISSION ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. METHODOLOGY: OUR METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON CONDUCTING LABORATORY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS WHICH MIMIC THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES AND TRACING THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS ON LINE AND IN SITU IN THE SOLID STATE AND UPON WARM-UP OF THE IRRADIATED ICES IN THE GAS PHASE. WE EXPLOIT NOVEL EMERGING LABORATORY TECHNIQUES WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN PREVIOUS SIMULATION STUDIES. THESE TECHNIQUES ARE: PHOTOLYSIS OF ICES WITH MONO ENERGETIC PHOTONS A CONCERTED ON LINE AND IN SITU INFRARED RAMAN AND ULTRAVIOLET-VISUAL (UVVIS) SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PHOTOLYZED ICES TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AND - UPON THEIR RELEASE INTO THE GAS PHASE - FRAGMENT-FREE PHOTOIONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WITH TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) PHOTONS COUPLED WITH REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROSCOPY (RETOF-MS). NASA RELEVANCE: RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY OVERLAP WITH THE GOALS OF NASA'S EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM: TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED. IT COVERS THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF EVENTS AND MATERIALS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETS SATELLITES AND MINOR BODIES. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF GAS DUST AND ICE. OUR PROPOSAL TACKLES FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS WHICH EVENTUALLY PROVIDE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS THEIR MOONS AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. OUR PROPOSAL ACCOUNTS FOR NASA'S GOAL TO INVESTIGATE VIA LABORATORY STUDIES THE BASIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS PROJECT IS VERY TIMELY SINCE THE ROSETTA SPACECRAFT ARRIVED AT COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. PROSPECTIVE PUBLICALLY DISSEMINATED DATA ON THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY CAN BE COMPARED WITH THE NEWLY FORMED ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IDENTIFIED IN OUR STUDIES. OUR PROJECT PRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TIMED INTERDISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE KEY QUESTION (ORIGIN OF A KEY CLASS OF BIORELEVANT MOLECULES) AND TO SUPPORT A CONCERTED ATTACK FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS COMBINING RESULTS FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ULTIMATELY REVOLUTIONIZING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS. ($2) 5/27/20 Not listed SCIENCE GOALS & OBJECTIVES: THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO COMPREHEND THE FORMATION OF A KEY CLASS OF ASTROBIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT MOLECULES - ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS - IN INTERSTELLAR ICES AS PRESENT IN COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS UPON INTERACTION WITH IONIZING RADIATION. COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS ARE CONSIDERED AS NURSERIES OF STARS AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. THE DENSEST PARTS OF THESE CLOUDS EVENTUALLY UNDERGO GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE TO FORM PRIMITIVE MATERIAL WHICH IN TURN SUPPLIES THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS THEIR MOONS AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. THEREFORE ORGANIC MATERIAL SUCH AS ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WHICH INITIALLY FORMED IN THE MOLECULAR CLOUD COULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO COMETS AND PARENT BODIES OF METEORITES SUCH AS OF MURCHISON AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO EARLY EARTH. SIGNIFICANCE: OUR PROJECT HAS UNPRECEDENTED IMPLICATIONS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS: TO RATIONALIZE A POTENTIALLY EXOGENOUS SOURCE OF ORGANIC WATER-SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS-BEARING COMPOUNDS THAT MIGHT HAVE INITIALIZED THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS CHEMISTRY ON EARLY EARTH TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AS DETECTED IN THE MURCHISON METEORITE AND TO INTERPRET PROSPECTIVE DATA FROM THE ROSETTA MISSION ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. METHODOLOGY: OUR METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON CONDUCTING LABORATORY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS WHICH MIMIC THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES AND TRACING THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS ON LINE AND IN SITU IN THE SOLID STATE AND UPON WARM-UP OF THE IRRADIATED ICES IN THE GAS PHASE. WE EXPLOIT NOVEL EMERGING LABORATORY TECHNIQUES WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN PREVIOUS SIMULATION STUDIES. THESE TECHNIQUES ARE: PHOTOLYSIS OF ICES WITH MONO ENERGETIC PHOTONS A CONCERTED ON LINE AND IN SITU INFRARED RAMAN AND ULTRAVIOLET-VISUAL (UVVIS) SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PHOTOLYZED ICES TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AND - UPON THEIR RELEASE INTO THE GAS PHASE - FRAGMENT-FREE PHOTOIONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WITH TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) PHOTONS COUPLED WITH REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROSCOPY (RETOF-MS). NASA RELEVANCE: RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY OVERLAP WITH THE GOALS OF NASA'S EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM: TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED. IT COVERS THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF EVENTS AND MATERIALS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETS SATELLITES AND MINOR BODIES. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF GAS DUST AND ICE. OUR PROPOSAL TACKLES FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS WHICH EVENTUALLY PROVIDE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS THEIR MOONS AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. OUR PROPOSAL ACCOUNTS FOR NASA'S GOAL TO INVESTIGATE VIA LABORATORY STUDIES THE BASIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS PROJECT IS VERY TIMELY SINCE THE ROSETTA SPACECRAFT ARRIVED AT COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. PROSPECTIVE PUBLICALLY DISSEMINATED DATA ON THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY CAN BE COMPARED WITH THE NEWLY FORMED ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IDENTIFIED IN OUR STUDIES. OUR PROJECT PRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TIMED INTERDISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE KEY QUESTION (ORIGIN OF A KEY CLASS OF BIORELEVANT MOLECULES) AND TO SUPPORT A CONCERTED ATTACK FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS COMBINING RESULTS FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ULTIMATELY REVOLUTIONIZING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS. $60.0k 5/8/19 5 SCIENCE GOALS & OBJECTIVES: THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO COMPREHEND THE FORMATION OF A KEY CLASS OF ASTROBIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT MOLECULES - ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS - IN INTERSTELLAR ICES AS PRESENT IN COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS UPON INTERACTION WITH IONIZING RADIATION. COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS ARE CONSIDERED AS NURSERIES OF STARS AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. THE DENSEST PARTS OF THESE CLOUDS EVENTUALLY UNDERGO GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE TO FORM PRIMITIVE MATERIAL, WHICH IN TURN SUPPLIES THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. THEREFORE, ORGANIC MATERIAL SUCH AS ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, WHICH INITIALLY FORMED IN THE MOLECULAR CLOUD, COULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO COMETS AND PARENT BODIES OF METEORITES SUCH AS OF MURCHISON AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO EARLY EARTH. SIGNIFICANCE: OUR PROJECT HAS UNPRECEDENTED IMPLICATIONS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS: TO RATIONALIZE A POTENTIALLY EXOGENOUS SOURCE OF ORGANIC, WATER-SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS-BEARING COMPOUNDS THAT MIGHT HAVE INITIALIZED THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS CHEMISTRY ON EARLY EARTH, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AS DETECTED IN THE MURCHISON METEORITE, AND TO INTERPRET PROSPECTIVE DATA FROM THE ROSETTA MISSION ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. METHODOLOGY: OUR METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON CONDUCTING LABORATORY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS, WHICH MIMIC THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE, ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES, AND TRACING THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS ON LINE AND IN SITU IN THE SOLID STATE AND UPON WARM-UP OF THE IRRADIATED ICES IN THE GAS PHASE. WE EXPLOIT NOVEL, EMERGING LABORATORY TECHNIQUES, WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN PREVIOUS SIMULATION STUDIES. THESE TECHNIQUES ARE: PHOTOLYSIS OF ICES WITH MONO ENERGETIC PHOTONS, A CONCERTED ON LINE AND IN SITU INFRARED, RAMAN, AND ULTRAVIOLET-VISUAL (UVVIS) SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PHOTOLYZED ICES TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, AND - UPON THEIR RELEASE INTO THE GAS PHASE - FRAGMENT-FREE PHOTOIONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WITH TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) PHOTONS COUPLED WITH REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROSCOPY (RETOF-MS). NASA RELEVANCE: RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY OVERLAP WITH THE GOALS OF NASA'S EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM: TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED. IT COVERS THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF EVENTS AND MATERIALS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETS, SATELLITES, AND MINOR BODIES. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF GAS, DUST, AND ICE. OUR PROPOSAL TACKLES FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS WHICH EVENTUALLY PROVIDE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. OUR PROPOSAL ACCOUNTS FOR NASA'S GOAL TO INVESTIGATE VIA LABORATORY STUDIES THE BASIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS PROJECT IS VERY TIMELY, SINCE THE ROSETTA SPACECRAFT ARRIVED AT COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. PROSPECTIVE PUBLICALLY DISSEMINATED DATA ON THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY CAN BE COMPARED WITH THE NEWLY FORMED ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IDENTIFIED IN OUR STUDIES. OUR PROJECT PRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TIMED INTERDISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE KEY QUESTION (ORIGIN OF A KEY CLASS OF BIORELEVANT MOLECULES) AND TO SUPPORT A CONCERTED ATTACK FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS COMBINING RESULTS FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ULTIMATELY REVOLUTIONIZING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS. Funding Only Action $60.0k 5/8/19 4 SCIENCE GOALS & OBJECTIVES: THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO COMPREHEND THE FORMATION OF A KEY CLASS OF ASTROBIOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT MOLECULES - ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS - IN INTERSTELLAR ICES AS PRESENT IN COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS UPON INTERACTION WITH IONIZING RADIATION. COLD MOLECULAR CLOUDS ARE CONSIDERED AS NURSERIES OF STARS AND PLANETARY SYSTEMS. THE DENSEST PARTS OF THESE CLOUDS EVENTUALLY UNDERGO GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE TO FORM PRIMITIVE MATERIAL, WHICH IN TURN SUPPLIES THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. THEREFORE, ORGANIC MATERIAL SUCH AS ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, WHICH INITIALLY FORMED IN THE MOLECULAR CLOUD, COULD HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO COMETS AND PARENT BODIES OF METEORITES SUCH AS OF MURCHISON AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED TO EARLY EARTH. SIGNIFICANCE: OUR PROJECT HAS UNPRECEDENTED IMPLICATIONS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS: TO RATIONALIZE A POTENTIALLY EXOGENOUS SOURCE OF ORGANIC, WATER-SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS-BEARING COMPOUNDS THAT MIGHT HAVE INITIALIZED THE ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS CHEMISTRY ON EARLY EARTH, TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS AS DETECTED IN THE MURCHISON METEORITE, AND TO INTERPRET PROSPECTIVE DATA FROM THE ROSETTA MISSION ON THE MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OF COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. METHODOLOGY: OUR METHODOLOGY IS BASED ON CONDUCTING LABORATORY SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS, WHICH MIMIC THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION WITH LOW TEMPERATURE, ASTROPHYSICALLY RELEVANT ICES, AND TRACING THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS ON LINE AND IN SITU IN THE SOLID STATE AND UPON WARM-UP OF THE IRRADIATED ICES IN THE GAS PHASE. WE EXPLOIT NOVEL, EMERGING LABORATORY TECHNIQUES, WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN ACCESSIBLE IN PREVIOUS SIMULATION STUDIES. THESE TECHNIQUES ARE: PHOTOLYSIS OF ICES WITH MONO ENERGETIC PHOTONS, A CONCERTED ON LINE AND IN SITU INFRARED, RAMAN, AND ULTRAVIOLET-VISUAL (UVVIS) SPECTROSCOPY OF THE PHOTOLYZED ICES TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS, AND - UPON THEIR RELEASE INTO THE GAS PHASE - FRAGMENT-FREE PHOTOIONIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS WITH TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET (VUV) PHOTONS COUPLED WITH REFLECTRON TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROSCOPY (RETOF-MS). NASA RELEVANCE: RESULTS FROM THIS PROPOSAL DIRECTLY OVERLAP WITH THE GOALS OF NASA'S EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM: TO CONDUCT SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING THE FORMATION AND EARLY EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND TO ANSWER THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE QUESTION OF HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED. IT COVERS THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF EVENTS AND MATERIALS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE FORMATION OF PLANETS, SATELLITES, AND MINOR BODIES. THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF GAS, DUST, AND ICE. OUR PROPOSAL TACKLES FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH WITH RESPECT TO THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS WHICH EVENTUALLY PROVIDE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR PLANETS, THEIR MOONS, AND SMALLER BODIES LIKE ASTEROIDS AND COMETS. OUR PROPOSAL ACCOUNTS FOR NASA'S GOAL TO INVESTIGATE VIA LABORATORY STUDIES THE BASIC CHEMICAL PROCESSES THAT DRIVE THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. THIS PROJECT IS VERY TIMELY, SINCE THE ROSETTA SPACECRAFT ARRIVED AT COMET 67P/ CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. PROSPECTIVE PUBLICALLY DISSEMINATED DATA ON THE MOLECULAR INVENTORY CAN BE COMPARED WITH THE NEWLY FORMED ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS IDENTIFIED IN OUR STUDIES. OUR PROJECT PRESENTS AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TIMED INTERDISCIPLINARY OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE KEY QUESTION (ORIGIN OF A KEY CLASS OF BIORELEVANT MOLECULES) AND TO SUPPORT A CONCERTED ATTACK FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS COMBINING RESULTS FROM LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ULTIMATELY REVOLUTIONIZING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE FORMATION OF ALKYLPHOSPHONIC ACIDS. Other Administrative Action $0 12/17/18