Related papers: Organic Matter in Space - an Overview
Galactic interstellar dust has a profound impact not only on our observations of objects throughout the Universe, but also on the morphology, star formation, and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. The advent of massive imaging and…
Models of planet formation are mainly focused on the accretion and dynamical processes of the planets, neglecting their chemical composition. In this work, we calculate the condensation sequence of the different chemical elements for a…
Observations of interstellar gas-phase and solid-state species in the 2.4-200 micron range obtained with the spectrometers on board the Infrared Space Observatory are reviewed. Lines and bands due to ices, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,…
The development of our understanding of the gaseous component of the interstellar medium is reviewed. During the 20th century our picture of diffuse material in space has grown from a simple model of isolated clouds in thermal equilibrium…
Accelerated particles are ubiquitous in the Cosmos and play a fundamental role in many processes governing the evolution of the Universe at all scales, from the sub-AU ones relevant for the formation and evolution of stars and planets to…
Emission and absorption line observations of molecules in late-type stars are a vital component in our understanding of stellar evolution, dust formation and mass loss in these objects. The molecular composition of the gas in the…
We describe observations in the nearby universe (<100 Mpc) with a 10-m or larger space-based telescope having imaging and spectral capabilities in the range 912-9000 \AA that would enable advances in the fields of massive stars, young…
Chondritic meteorites constitute the most ancient rock record available in the laboratory to study the formation of the solar system and its planets. Detailed investigations of their mineralogy, petrography, chemistry and isotopic…
A detailed understanding of the physics of star and planet formation requires study of individual objects as well as statistical assessment of global properties and evolutionary trends. Observational investigations of circumstellar material…
The abundances of gas and dust (solids and complex molecules) in the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as their composition and structures impact practically all of astrophysics. Fundamental processes from star formation to stellar winds to…
Rings are ubiquitous around giant planets in our Solar System. They evolve jointly with the nearby satellite system. They could form either during the giant planet formation process or much later, as a result of large scale dynamical…
Cosmic dust plays a dominant role in the universe, especially in the formation of stars and planetary systems. Furthermore, the surface of cosmic dust grains is the bench-work where molecular hydrogen and simple organic compounds are…
Since very recently, we acquired knowledge on the existence of comets in extrasolar planetary systems. The formation of comets together with planets around host stars now seems evident. As stars are often born in clusters of interstellar…
In this review/tutorial we explore planetary nebulae as a stage in the evolution of low-to-intermediate-mass stars, as major contributors to the mass and chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium, and as astrophysical laboratories. We…
Planetary formation is an efficient process now thought to take place on a relatively short astronomical time scale. Recent observations have shown that the dust surrounding a protostar emits more efficiently at longer wavelengths as the…
Crystalline silicates are found in a large number of comets. These pose a long-standing conundrum for solar system formation models as they can only be created in the inner hot disk at temperatures higher than 800 K, and there is no obvious…
Complex organic molecules (COMs) are thought to be the precursors of pre-biotic molecules and are observed in many protostellar sources. For this paper we studied the formation of COMs during star formation and their evolution in the…
An element's astrophysical origin should be reflected in the spatial distribution of its abundance, yielding measurably different spatial distributions for elements with different nucleosynthetic sites. However, most extragalactic…
The mass density of dust particles that form from asteroids and comets in the interplanetary medium of the solar system is, near 1 AU, comparable to the mass density of the solar wind. It is mainly contained in particles of micrometer size…
The chemical composition of a protoplanetary disk is determined not only by in situ chemical processes during the disk phase, but also by the history of the gas and dust before it accreted from the natal envelope. In order to understand the…