AstroFIt 2 – COFUND fellow since August 1, 2017
Project ended July 31, 2020
INAF Research Centre: Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri
Email: victor.rivilla at inaf.it
In the media:
- Phosphorus-bearing molecules in the Galactic Center
- Complex starts with simple: First ALMA maps of HCO, an important precursor of complex organic molecules, towards IRAS 16293-2422
- Dna spaziale, trovato un pezzo mancante (Media INAF, 13/12/2018)
- Individuate molecole di glicolonitrile nello spazio (Media INAF, 24/1/2019)
- La “scioccante” origine del nitruro di fosforo (Media INAF, 21/10/2019)
- From lab to space: discovery of a new organic molecule in an interstellar molecular cloud
- Scoperta molecola organica nel mezzo interstellare (Media INAF, 17/06/2020)
Conference:
- Cosmic Rays: the salt of the star formation recipe (Florence, 2-4 May 2018)
Talks:
Poster:
Papers/Publications:
- The formation of prebiotic molecules in star-forming regions (Mem. S.A.It. Vol. 88, 568, 2017)
- Phosphorus-bearing molecules in the Galactic Center (MNRAS, 20/12/2017)
- Chemical modelling of glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol in star-forming regions (MNRAS, 27/12/2017)
- The feedback of an HC HII region on its parental molecular core. The case of core A1 in the star-forming region G24.78+0.08 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 616, 2018)
- Nitrogen fractionation in high-mass star-forming cores across the Galaxy (MNRAS, 17/4/2018)
- Complex organic molecules in the Galactic Centre: the N-bearing family (MNRAS, 31/5/2018)
- Detecting Infall in High-Mass Protostellar Objects (An ngVLA Science Book chapter, 21/6/2018)
- Complex Organic Molecules in Hot Molecular Cores/Corinos: Physics and Chemistry (An ngVLA Science Book chapter, 21/6/2018)
- Accelerating infall and rotational spin-up in the hot molecular core G31.41+0.31 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 22/6/2018)
- On the origin of phosphorus nitride in star-forming regions (MNRAS, 22/7/2018)
- Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps (MNRAS, 31/8/2018)
- Chasing discs around O-type (proto)stars ALMA evidence for an SiO disc and disc wind from G17.64+0.16⋆ (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 10/10/2018)
- First ALMA maps of HCO, an important precursor of complex organic molecules, towards IRAS 16293−2422 (MNRAS, 6/11/2018)
- Abundant Z-cyanomethanimine in the interstellar medium: paving the way to the synthesis of adenine (MNRAS, 3/12/2018)
- ALMA Observations of Ethyl Formate toward Orion KL (The Astrophysical Journal, 10/12/2018)
- First detection of the pre-biotic molecule glycolonitrile (HOCH2CN) in the interstellar medium (MNRAS, 10/1/2019)
- A 10-M YSO with a Keplerian disk and a nonthermal radio jet (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 10/1/2019)
- Substructures in the Keplerian disc around the O-type (proto)star G17.64+0.16 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 18/6/2019)
- Origin of the PN molecule in star-forming regions: the enlarged sample (MNRAS, 30/8/2019)
- Spectral Line Identification and Modelling (SLIM) in the MAdrid Data CUBe Analysis (MADCUBA) package: An interactive software for data cube analysis (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 6/9/2019)
- Super Hot Cores in NGC 253: Witnessing the formation and early evolution of Super Star Clusters (MNRAS, 26/9/2019)
- The first steps of Interstellar Phosphorus Chemistry (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 31/10/2019)
- ALMA and ROSINA detections of phosphorus-bearing molecules: the interstellar thread between star-forming regions and comets (MNRAS, 27/11/2019)
- Exploring the formation pathways of formamide near young O-type stars (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 27/12/2019)
- Center for Astrobiology: Toward the RNA-World in the Interstellar Medium—Detection of Urea and Search of 2-Amino-oxazole and Simple Sugars (Astrobiology, 17/4/2020)
- On the effec ts of UV photons/X-rays on the chemistry of the Sgr B2 cloud(ApJ, 28/04/2020)
- Isomers in Interstellar Environments (I):The Case of Z- and E-Cyanomethanimine (ApJ, 20/05/2020)
- DC3N observations towards high-mass star-forming regions (MNRAS, 29/05/2020)
- Propargylimine in the laboratory and in space: millimetre-wave spectroscopy and first detection in the ISM (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 16/06/2020)
- Evolutionary study of complex organic molecules in high-mass star-forming regions (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 27/06/2020)
- The ionized warped disk and disk wind of the massive protostar Monoceros R2-IRS2 seen with ALMA (ApJ Letters, 29/6/2020)
- Extensive ro-vibrational analysis of deuterated-cyanoacetylene (DC3N) from millimeter-wavelengths to the infrared domain (JQSRT, 17/07/2020)
- Cloud-cloud collision as drivers of the chemical complexity in Galactic Centre molecular clouds (MNRAS, 20/7/2020)
Project title: BIOSFERA – BIrth Of Stars and liFE: edge Research at inAf
Abstract:
The origin of life is one of the most fascinating topics for the Human Being. The building blocks of life are molecules with more than 5 atoms and containing carbon, known as complex organic molecules (COMs). The improved sensitivity of current astronomical facilities (e.g. ALMA, NOEMA, VLA) has allowed us to detect many of these COMs in regions where stars and planets are forming. This exciting result have led us to wonder if there is a chemical link between the interstellar medium (ISM) and our own planet, where the life found the needed conditions to develop. 
To shed light on this topic, we need to understand the mechanisms responsible for the formation of COMs, which are still poorly known. This is the fundamental objective of the BIOSFERA project, which will be focused on the study of the formation of two families of molecules with high astrobiological interest such as sugar-related molecules (glycoladehyde, ethylene glycol…) and molecules containing phosphorus, which is a key ingredient for prebiotic chemistry. These families of molecules play a crucial role in many chemical processes related with life, such as the transport of energy and the formation of genetic material. BIOSFERA will conduct and analyse multiple high-quality observations towards chemically rich star-forming regions. The observational results will be compared with the predictions of the state-of-the-art chemical models available and with laboratory experiments, allowing us to disentangle the formation chemical pathways of the seeds of life.