Title: ALMA in the Lab: The Sublimation of Laboratory Ices Millimeter/submillimeter Experiment (SubLIME) at NASA Goddard

Abstract: Rotational spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool in observational astrochemistry, with many molecular compounds discovered and studied using radio telescopes. A prominent challenge with observational astrochemistry, however, is that astrochemists cannot simply go to interstellar environments to collect samples, and star formation timescales make it impossible to observe how chemistry changes over the course of stellar evolution. Instead, interstellar laboratories can be simulated in terrestrial ones using (ultra)high vacuum setups and cryogenic temperatures. We present the Sublimation of Laboratory Ices Millimeter/submillimeter Experiment (SubLIME) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which uses the structure-specificity of rotational spectroscopy to identify the composition and abundances of sublimated photoproducts of UV-photolyzed ice analogues. This talk will introduce the methods used by SubLIME and results of UV-photolyzed methanol ice experiments, as well as the connection between SubLIME’s rotational spectroscopy capabilities and observations at (sub)millimeter wavelengths.