Related papers: Ethynyl (C2H) in massive star formation: Tracing t…
Interstellar CO2 is an important reservoir of carbon and oxygen, and one of the major constituents of the icy mantles of dust grains, but it is not observable directly in the cold gas because has no permanent dipole moment. Its protonated…
Our knowledge of the initial conditions and early stages of high mass star formation is very limited. We will review recent surveys of regions in the early stages of massive star formation using molecular tracers of high density and dust…
We present a comprehensive physical and chemical study of the fragmentation and star formation activity towards the massive clump AGAL G338.9188+0.5494 harbouring the extended green object EGO 338.92+0.55(b). The presence of an EGO embedded…
Methanol (CH$_3$OH) is found to be abundant and widespread towards the Central Molecular Zone, the inner few hundred parsecs of our Galaxy. Its origin is, however, not fully understood. It was proposed that the high cosmic ray ionisation…
Methanol masers at 6.7 GHz are the brightest of class II methanol masers and have been found exclusively towards massive star forming regions. These masers can thus be used as a unique tool to probe the early phases of massive star…
It has been proposed that some hot molecular cores (HMCs) harbor a young embedded massive star, which heats an infalling envelope and accretes mass at a rate high enough to ``choke off'' an incipient HII region. This class of HMCs would…
High mass stars form in groups or clusters within massive cores in dense molecular clumps with sizes of 1pc and masses of 200Msun which are important laboratories for high-mass star formation in order to study the initial conditions. We…
Formaldehyde is a key precursor in the formation routes of many complex organic molecules (COMs) in space. It is also an intermediate step in CO hydrogenation sequence that leads to methanol formation on the surface of interstellar grains…
We report on simulations of the formation of the first stars in the Universe, where we identify regions of hot atomic gas (fH2 < 10-6) at densities above 10-14 g/cc, heated to temperatures ranging between 3000 and 8000 K. Within this…
At the onset of high-mass star formation, accreting protostars are deeply embedded in massive cores made of gas and dust. Their spectral energy distribution is still dominated by the cold dust and rises steeply from near-to far-infrared…
We present the results from a survey, designed to investigate the accretion process of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) through near infrared narrow band imaging using the H$_2$ $\nu$=1-0 S(1) transition filter. A sample of 353 Massive…
Gas-phase hydroxylamine (NH$_2$OH) has recently been detected within dense clouds in the interstellar medium. However, it is also likely present within interstellar ices, as well as on the icy surfaces of outer Solar System bodies, where it…
The effect of a newly born star cluster inside a giant molecular cloud (GMC) is to produce a hot bubble and a thin, dense shell of interstellar gas and dust swept up by the H II expansion, strong stellar winds, and repeated supernova…
Aims: The production of saturated organic molecules in hot cores and corinos is not well understood. The standard approach is to assume that, as temperatures heat up during star formation, methanol and other species evaporate from grain…
Formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) and methanol (CH$_3$OH) have served as traditional tracers of the star formation process for decades. Studies of the environments which produce these species, though, have pointed to significant differences in the…
We present time dependent chemical models for a dense and warm O-rich gas exposed to a strong far ultraviolet field aiming at exploring the formation of simple organic molecules in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks around T Tauri…
In this contribution, our knowledge of the initial conditions under which massive star formation takes place is reviewed. Massive stars are born in massive clumps of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), hence first the properties of GMCs are…
Due to its relatively small distance (725 pc), the Cepheus A East star-forming region is an ideal laboratory to study massive star formation processes. Based on its morphology, it has been suggested that the flattened molecular gas…
The results of a survey of 63 galactic star-forming regions in the 6_K-5_K and 5_K-4_K methyl acetylene lines at 102 and 85 GHz, respectively, are presented. Fourty-three sources were detected at 102 GHz, and twenty-five at 85 GHz. Emission…
Pre-stellar cores represent the earliest stage of the star- and planet-formation process. By characterizing the physical and chemical structure of these cores we can establish the initial conditions for star and planet formation and…