MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 108 not yet practiced in the country. Institutions such as BARC, TIFR, SINP, VECC, IUAC etc, however, do have facilities that can, in principle, be used for laboratory nuclear astrophysics. The available accelerators and ion-beam research facilities provide the basic infrastructure and human resources to study nuclear reactions and nuclear processes of astrophysical relevance. As a natural consequence of the relatively large funding towards mega projects like LIGO-India, TMT, SKA, and FAIR, it is quite timely to establish dedicated laboratories where the proposed science goals could be simulated under controlled environment with the given theoretical inputs. FAIR is one of the best examples having many experiments related to nuclear astrophysics under NUSTAR/R3C and other experiments where India could contribute significantly towards many unsolved aspects of astrophysical problems. The proposed Free Electron Laser (FEL) at IUAC will be able to provide high quality electron beams for producingTHz radiation and understanding various physical processes and their applications. These FEL studies could be further extended to develop facilities like femto-second two-beam Peta-watt class lasers which could be used to understand various astrophysical processes. In early 2018, the Gemini Laser, the world's most powerful femto-second laser was used to produce relativistic electron-positron beams and get a mini gamma-ray burst in the laboratory for the first time. So, it is obvious that the need of future is to extend laboratory set-ups to conduct front-line astrophysical experiments in controlled laboratory environments to understand astrophysical phenomena. 9.4 Astrochemistry The role of molecules and dust in the Universe is very important, be it in star formation in dense interstellar regions, dynamics within interstellar clouds or circumstellar shells of evolved stars, atmospheres of exoplanets etc. Spectroscopic identification of atomic or molecular species in space require affirmation from terrestrial laboratory observations. Identification of Fraunhofer lines and their attribution to hot atoms by Kirchhoff and Bunsen is among the first examples of this laboratory-astronomy connection. With advanced astrophysical observations several molecular species and radicals have been detected in different astrophysical environments. Currently there are more than 200 molecules confirmed in the interstellar and circumstellar medium. These observations provide crucial information regarding the physical and chemical properties of the object under observation. Observations of a group of emission lines in the mid-infrared spectral region indicate the presence of poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) family of molecules The relative variation of intensity between these emission features can probe the astrophysical environment and distinguish between early and late stages of stellar evolution. Crucial information regarding external galaxies andAGN are also studied through thesemid-infrared emission features. Understanding of the molecular spectrum through laboratory studies in conditions simulating astrophysical environments enables a better understanding of different astrophysical phenomena. Recent discoveries of primordial molecule HeH+ in NGC 7027 and aromatic molecules Benzonitrile and cyano-naphthalene inTMC-1 bring to the fore the importance of laboratory spectroscopic studies. In this context, a story worth mentioning is the laboratory confirmation of Fullerene cation as the carrier of two diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). DIBs are unidentified absorption features in ISM that have remained a mystery for nearly a century. Two DIBs in the near infrared, at 9577 and 9632Angstrom, were initially, in 1994, given possible attribution to electronic transitions in C60+. Confirmation was not possible as the available matrix isolated C60+ laboratory spectrum was broadened and wavelength shifted. MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035