From Stardust to Life: The Chemistry of Habitable Worlds

What made Earth hospitable to the origins of life? And how often should we expect planets around other stars to be habitable? The answers to both these questions lie in the formation and distribution of molecules in planet-forming disks around young stars. By studying the chemistry of these disks, we can begin to map out under which conditions young planets have access to the elements most associated with life (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous), to water, and even to organic molecules.

Join Karin Öberg of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University as she reviews our current understanding of this chemistry, as well as how this understanding has been achieved through a combination of astronomical observations, including chemical imaging of disks with the powerful microwave telescope ALMA, theory, and laboratory experiments aimed at recreating some of the exotic chemistry characteristic of planet-forming environments. Register now to discover how the recent arrival of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as well as ongoing and future Solar System missions are setting us up to more deeply address links between astrochemistry and the formation of planets hospitable to origins of life.

This ACS Webinar is moderated by Susanna Widicus Weaver of the University of Wiscosin-Madison and is co-produced with the ACS PHYS Astrochemistry Subdivision.

What You Will Learn

• The basics of planet formation and its links to chemistry
• How organic molecules can form at cryogenic temperatures
• What observational methods enable us to observe molecules in star and planet forming regions