Investigations of Carbon and Oxygen in Young Stellar Objects and Implications for the Early Solar System

In this talk, I will describe my ongoing results of high-resolution astronomical observations of young stellar objects (YSOs) across the Galaxy, and their unique windows into protoplanetary and pre-biotic chemistry. As analogues of the solar nebula, YSOs that are rich in CO isotopologues (¹²C¹⁶O, ¹³C¹⁶O, ¹²C¹⁸O, ¹²C¹⁷O) enable both the study of early exoplanetary systems as well as important comparisons with isotopic measurements in carbonaceous chondrites – the most primitive meteorites and relics of the early solar system. I will present our recent investigations of protoplanetary carbon and oxygen using the iSHELL spectrograph at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Maunakea, where we obtain near-infrared high-resolution (R ~ 80,000-90,000) data of CO in rovibration (2- and 4-microns) toward a range of YSO environments. Our results have so far revealed heterogeneity in ¹²CO/¹³CO in YSOs in our local solar neighborhood, signatures of CO self-shielding in some YSOs, and evidence that binary protostars (the most common configuration) may not follow identical chemical evolutionary pathways. I will also discuss how our recent experiments on interstellar ice analogues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory help interpret the YSO data. Finally, I will introduce some new projects aimed at communicating research and mission data to the public as part of my role as a research scientist and curator at a large natural sciences museum.