ASTROCHEMISTRY LABORATORY

The Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Laboratory is located in the Space Sciences and Astrophysics Branch of the Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA's Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, California. This laboratory supports NASA's space science missions and programs. We study the physical and chemical properties of interstellar, cometary, asteroidal, planetary and lunar materials. Among the materials studied are interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, the largest carbon molecules in space), aerosols in planetary atmospheres, ice mantles on interstellar grains and surface ices on comets and on solar system planets, and laboratory samples of actual extraterrestrial materials (meteorites and cosmic dust). Extraterrestrial material analogs are produced in our laboratory under conditions realistically close to space environments and range from molecules and ions in gas-phase interstellar clouds and planetary atmospheres to interstellar, cometary, and planetary..