NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND MOLECULAR PROCESSES IN EVOLVED STARS: FROM (RADIO)ISOTOPES TO COMPLEX MOLECULAR NANOSTRUCTURES

Operation co-funded by EU cohesion policy (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)) under the programme Multi-regional Spain - ERDF (2014ES16RFOP002), managing authority: Subdirección General de Gestión del FEDER, de la Dirección General de Fondos Europeos del Ministerio de Hacienda.. The source names no beneficiary for this operation. Location: Tenerife (NUTS ES709); Spain. Budget: total eligible expenditure EUR 131,890; EU co-financing EUR 112,106.5 (co-financing rate 85%), as stated by the source. Runs 2018-01-01 to 2021-08-31. Source: Kohesio, EU cohesion policy projects managed by national and regional authorities (not CORDIS); selected because its summary names quantum technology. Summary from Kohesio (English machine translation by the source): LOW- TO INTERMEDIATE-MASS (M 4-5 MS) AGB STARS SYNTHESIZE VERY DIFFERENT (RADIO)ISOTOPES (SUCH AS 87RB, 26AL, 60FE, 7LI, 14N) FROM THOSE FORMED BY LOWER MASS AGB STARS AND SUPERNOVA DETONATIONS, AS A CONSEQUENCE OF DIFFERENT NUCLEOSYNTHESIS MECHANISMS. EVOLVED STARS IN THE TRANSITION PHASE BETWEEN AGB STARS AND PNE ALSO FORM DIVERSE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS LIKE POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS, AND FULLERENE AND GRAPHENE MOLECULAR NANOSTRUCTURES, BEING A WONDERFUL LABORATORY FOR ASTROCHEMISTRY. ON-GOING MASSIVE SURVEYS LIKE SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 AND UPCOMING SPACE-BASED FACILITIES SUCH AS THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) REPRESENT A FUNDAMENTAL STEP FORWARD TO UNDERSTAND THE NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND MOLECULAR PROCESSES IN EVOLVED STARS. WE PROPOSE TO EXPLORE THE NUCLEOSYNTHESIS OF LIGHT AND HEAVY (RADIO)ISOTOPES IN AGB STARS AND HOW THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE ESS RADIOACTIVE INVENTORY AS WELL AS TO THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF GCS AND GALAXIES. SPECIFICALLY, THE LARGE SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 SAMPLES OF MILKY WAY AND EXTRA-GALACTIC AGB AND GC STARS WILL IMPOSE FUNDAMENTAL OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS TO THE ACTUAL AGB THEORETICAL MODELS AND WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE OUR PRESENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHEMICAL EVOLUTION OF GCS. WE ALSO AIM AT UNDERSTANDING THE TOP-DOWN FORMATION PROCESS OF FULLERENE AND GRAPHENE MOLECULAR NANOSTRUCTURES IN EVOLVED STARS, INVOLVING THE PHOTOCHEMICAL PROCESSING OF HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS CARBON NANOPARTICLES AND SIMILAR NATURAL MATERIALS LIKE KEROGEN AND ASPHALTENES. BY UNDERSTANDING THIS, WE WILL UNVEIL ANOTHER THREE BIG QUESTIONS IN ASTROCHEMISTRY: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THESE MOLECULAR NANOSTRUCTURES IN CIRCUMSTELLAR/INTERSTELLAR CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS? WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIDENTIFIED IR EMISSION WIDELY OBSERVED IN THE UNIVERSE? WHAT OTHER FORMS OF C ARE PRESENT IN SPACE? THE COMPLEX COMPOUNDS TO BE EXPLORED HERE ARE SIMILAR TO THE ORGANIC MATTER FOUND IN PROTO-PLANETARY DISKS AND SS BODIES AND THEIR STUDY MAY HAVE IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ESS [shortened; the full text is on the Kohesio page]

Original source.

Source: Kohesio (EU cohesion policy projects), European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). Retrieved 2026-10-21. Licence: CC0 1.0 (Cohesion Open Data Platform, dataset 2014-2020 Kohesio projects). Selected metadata, adapted presentation; the publisher's record is authoritative. No endorsement by the source is implied. Licence: public domain dedication (CC0 1.0).

AI-assisted summary: The operation focuses on nucleosynthesis and molecular processes in evolved stars, particularly low- to intermediate-mass AGB stars, and is co-funded by the EU with a budget of EUR 131,890. It runs from January 1, 2018, to August 31, 2021, in Tenerife, Spain. Suggested technology pillar: enabling. Generated by AI from the public source text; it may contain errors and the original source is authoritative.