English

Astrochemistry on Galactic scales

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-09-05 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

The increasing number of observations towards different environments in the Milky Way, as well as theoretical and experimental works, are improving our knowledge of the astrochemical processes in the interstellar medium (ISM). In this chapter we report some of the main projects to study the chemical complexity and isotopic ratios across the Galaxy. High-sensitivity spectral surveys covering broad bandwidths towards Galactic Center molecular clouds (e.g. G+0.693-0.027) and star-forming regions (e.g. the hot core G31.41+0.31) are revealing very rich astrochemical reservoirs, which include molecules of prebiotic interest. At the same time, isotopic ratios (e.g. 12^{12}C/13^{13}C and 14^{14}N/15^{15}N) can give important information on the Galactic chemical evolution, as well as on chemical local processes due to the physical conditions of the molecular clouds. We also highlight the role of cosmic rays as a key agent affecting the interstellar chemistry described above.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.02537,
  title  = {Astrochemistry on Galactic scales},
  author = {L. Colzi and V. M. Rivilla and M. T. Beltrán and C. Y. Law and E. Redaelli and M. Padovani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.02537},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

9 pages, 1 figures - Chapter II of the National Congress of (proto-)Planetary Astrochemistry (CNAP II) Proceedings - Accepted for publication on MemSAIt, in print

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:33:43.574Z