2025 Project Description

Exploring Organic Molecules in a Solar-like Protostellar core

Supervisors

Shih-Ying Hsu, Chin-Fei Lee
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

What is the origin of life? Organic molecules in protostellar cores may hold crucial clues to solving this profound mystery.
To investigate this, we conducted radio observations of HOPS 87, a protostellar core located in the Orion Molecular Cloud. This source is known to harbor two molecularly-rich regions: one associated with an extremely young bipolar outflow and another situated in the innermost envelope. Our observations cover multiple lines emitted from molecules such as CH3OH, 13CH3OH, CH3CHO, HCOOCH3, CH3CN, and NH2CHO.
In this project, students will work with recently acquired ALMA data. They will learn the fundamentals of radio astronomy, gain insights into interferometric imaging techniques, and develop skills to extract molecular parameters such as temperature and column density from observed spectra. These competencies are essential for advancing our understanding of star formation through molecular tracers.

Required Background

Passion for learning. Basic knowledge of Physics. Basic skills of Python is preferred but not required.