The GBT PRIMOS Project - Searching for our Molecular Origins
The GBT PRIMOS Project: Searching for our Molecular Origins
Jan M. Hollis (Goddard), Anthony J. Remijan (NRAO), Philip R. Jewell (NRAO), Frank J. Lovas (NIST)
Astrobiology
undoubtedly begins with the formation of prebiotic molecules
in interstellar clouds. The inventory of interstellar
molecules presently stands at ~157 different species. Over
the last several years, the GBT has been used to detect 11
new interstellar molecules - all are large (6 to 11 atoms),
organic, and prebiotic in some measure. This survey will be
the deepest spectral line survey to date toward the
pre-eminent source of molecules in the Galaxy, the Galactic
center region around Sgr B2N. The data will be provided to
the astronomical community on a quarterly basis (as
available) as data accumulate in order to facilitate the
identification of new interstellar species and deduce likely
molecular formation chemistry.
