Description du projet
Déchiffrer la chimie et la physique des galaxies voisines
Les molécules imprègnent les parties plus froides et plus denses de notre univers, en particulier les réservoirs de matière qui contribuent à la formation des étoiles et des planètes, et le gaz au centre des galaxies. Bien qu’il existe environ 200 galaxies proches de la Voie lactée, les chercheurs ne sont toujours pas en mesure d’observer individuellement les nuages de gaz dense. L’avènement de télescopes de plus en plus sensibles a révélé que la chimie de nos galaxies voisines est aussi complexe que celle de la Voie lactée. Le projet MOPPEX, financé par l’UE, entend faire la lumière sur la structure physique et chimique des galaxies proches. Il prévoit notamment de déterminer les processus énergétiques qui façonnent leur apparence et d’identifier l’origine de la matière qui contribue à la formation des étoiles ou alimente les trous noirs.
Objectif
Molecules pervade the cooler, denser parts of our Universe, in particular the reservoirs of the matter that forms stars and planets, and the gas in the centres of galaxies. In the Milky Way we routinely use molecules to discover and explore these regions and the more complex the chemistry, the more details of the gas the molecules reveal. There are one hundred billion galaxies in the observable Universe. About 200 or so are our neighbours. However, due to their distance, we are still not able to zoom in and observe individual clouds of dense gas. Nevertheless with the advent of ever more sensitive telescopes such as ALMA, we are discovering that chemistry in external galaxies is as complex as in our own Milky Way. Molecules, it seems, are universal and widespread.
In MOPPEX I use molecules to shed light on the physical and chemical structure of our local galaxies, namely (i) what the energetic processes that determine their appearance are and (ii) where the matter that will form stars or fuels black holes is, with the ultimate goal to understand how galaxies form, evolve and interact with each other. To achieve this objective I propose a multi-faceted program that combines state of the art chemical and statistical models in conjunction with interferometric observations. More specifically, the success of MOPPEX relies on (i) in-house and open source suites of chemical models and an in-house line radiative transfer model, (ii) a new suite of tools comprising of modular statistical and machine learning algorithms, and (iii) large datasets of observational data on two nearby galaxies differing in types.
My ultimate objective is to fundamentally change the way molecular observations are interpreted for external galaxies and thus to cause a paradigm shift in the use of molecules as tools to determine the chemistry and physics of galaxies.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanets
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysicsblack holes
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsstatistics and probability
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitution d’accueil
2311 EZ Leiden
Pays-Bas