Press
HARVARD PORTRAIT Karin Öberg
GROWING UP IN Lutheran Sweden, Karin Öberg had no inkling that she would one day become an astrochemist, the first to observe a complex organic molecule in the freezing cloud of gas and dust surrounding a young star—or that she would convert to...
A Circumplanetary Disk Candidate Spotted with ALMA
Astronomers may have found a gaseous disk around a planet orbiting the young star AS 209. This is one of just four circumplanetary disk candidates discovered so far, and these observations enable the first mass estimate of a circumplanetary disk’s gas...
The James Webb Space Telescope will be astrochemists’ newest and most powerful tool
Delayed for more than a decade, the world’s next flagship space telescope will launch in December, giving scientists an unprecedented view of chemistry around the galaxy JWST will provide scientists with new ways to study gas-phase molecules in...
Conditions That Triggered Life On Earth Could Exist More Widely Across The Milky Way Say Scientists In Landmark Study (Forbes)
The dust and gas where planets form have been mapped in extraordinary detail around five nearby young stars—and astronomers have found organic molecules that are implicated in the emergence of life on Earth. The findings suggest that the basic chemical...
Planets Form in Organic Soups with Different Ingredients
Cambridge, MA -- Astronomers have mapped out the chemicals inside of planetary nurseries in extraordinary detail. The newly unveiled maps reveal the locations of dozens of molecules within five protoplanetary disks — regions of dust and gas where planets...
Karin Öberg’s Search for the Chemical Basis of Planet Formation
With new tools offering an unprecedented view of a planet’s molecular building blocks, astrochemists are working to pin down the recipe for a habitable world. https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2021/07/28/karin-obergs-search-for-the…...
A Conversation with Karin Öberg
The Harvard astrochemist discusses how reactions on icy dust grains shape solar systems. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.1c00818
The evolving chemistry of protoplanetary disks
Planets form from the gas and dust in disks that surround young stars. Chemicals in the disk that evaporate easily, called volatiles, include important molecules like water, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, as well as other simple organic molecules. The amount...
ALMA Captures Stirred-Up Planet Factory
In recent years, high resolution observations of dust structures have revolutionized our understanding of planet formation. However, this new image of the gas indicates that the current view of planet formation is still too simplistic and that it might be...
Formalde-hyde and Seek
Title: An ALMA Survey of H2CO in Protoplanetary Disks Authors: Jamila Pegues, Karin Oberg, J. Bergner et al. First Author Institution: Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Open access arXiv closed access on ApJ Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV...
Professor Karin Öberg Named 2020 Simons Investigator Recipient
Karin Öberg, Professor of Astronomy , has been named a 2020 Simons Investigator recipient for her work on the role of chemistry during planet formation. She combines theory, astronomical observations and experiments to explore the chemical environments...