Since the discovery in 1992, Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) - small planetary bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune - have received considerable attention from the planetary sciences, astronomy, and physical chemistry community. At the low temperatures of KBOs of 30-50 K, a chemical modification of ices can be only induced via non-equilibrium chemistry through ionizing radiation from solar wind particles, solar wind photons, and galactic cosmic ray (GCR) particles. Laboratory experiments simulating these interactions offer extraordinary opportunities for understanding the chemical processing of primitive bodies and allow for an establishment of a 'chemical' time-line dating back to the origin of our Solar System. Since biologically important molecules like amino acids and their precursors can be synthesized in these ices, these studies will also explore scenarios where in our Solar System astrobiologically important molecules might have been formed. This symposium centers on the interdisciplinary field of astrochemistry, bringing together speakers from the fields of laboratory astrochemistry (dynamics, kinetics, spectroscopy), astrochemical modeling (physicists, planetary scientists), theoreticians (computational chemists), observers (astronomers), and mission specialists (planetary scientists). By focusing on the interplay between observational data, modeling, computations, missions, and fundamental investigations of the details of specific molecular processes which lead to a chemical modification of KBO surfaces, we seek to extract generalized concepts on the formation and of the processing of KBO surfaces and related bodies. |
