Related papers: A radical route to interstellar propylene formatio…

The interstellar medium is known to be chemically complex. Organic molecules with up to 11 atoms have been detected in the interstellar medium, and are believed to be formed on the ices around dust grains. The ices can be released into the…

The interstellar medium is characterized by a rich and diverse chemistry. Many of its complex organic molecules are proposed to form through radical chemistry in icy grain mantles. Radicals form readily when interstellar ices (composed of…

Methyl cyanide (CH3CN) and propyne (CH3CCH) are two molecules commonly used as gas thermometers for interstellar gas. They are detected in several astrophysical environments and in particular towards protostars. Using data of the low-mass…

The recent discovery of terrestrial-type organic species such as methyl formate and dimethyl ether in the cold interstellar gas has proved that the formation of organic matter in the Galaxy begins at a much earlier stage of star formation…

Life on Earth relies on chiral molecules, that is, species not superimposable on their mirror images. This manifests itself in the selection of a single molecular handedness, or homochirality, across the biosphere. We present the…

Many species of complex organic molecules (COMs) have been observed in several astrophysical environments but it is not clear how they are produced, particularly in cold, quiescent regions. One process that has been proposed as a means to…

We present the discovery in TMC-1 of vinyl acetylene, CH2CHCCH, and the detection, for the first time in a cold dark cloud, of HCCN, HC4N, and CH3CH2CN. A tentative detection of CH3CH2CCH is also reported. The column density of vinyl…

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…

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are expected to be the most abundant class of organic molecules in space. Their interstellar lifecycle is not well understood, and progress is hampered by difficulties detecting individual PAH…

Context. The abundances of many observed compounds in interstellar molecular clouds still lack an explanation, despite extensive research that includes both gas and solid (dust-grain surface) phase reactions. Aims. We aim to qualitatively…

We study the origin of large abundances of complex organic molecules in the Galactic center (GC). We carried out a systematic study of the complex organic molecules CH3OH, C2H5OH, (CH3)2O, HCOOCH3, HCOOH, CH3COOH, H2CO, and CS toward 40 GC…

The first set of theoretical cross sections for propylene oxide (CH3CHCH2O) colliding with cold He atoms has been obtained at the full quantum level using a high-accuracy potential energy surface. By scaling the collision reduced mass,…

Recent detections of aromatic species in dark molecular clouds suggest formation pathways may be efficient at very low temperatures and pressures, yet current astrochemical models are unable to account for their derived abundances, which…

1-propanol (CH3CH2CH2OH) is a three carbon-bearing representative of primary linear alcohols that may have its origin in the cold dark cores in interstellar space. To test this, we investigated in the laboratory whether 1-propanol ice can…

Complex organic molecules (COMs) have been detected in a variety of interstellar sources. The abundances of these COMs in warming sources can be explained by syntheses linked to increasing temperatures and densities, allowing quasi-thermal…

The physical conditions in a collapsing cloud can be traced by observations of molecular lines. To correctly interpret these observations the abundance distributions of the observed species need to be derived. The chemistry in a collapsing…

A partial submillimeter line-survey was performed toward 7 high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) aimed at detecting H2CO, CH3OH, CH2CO, CH3CHO, C2H5OH, HCOOH, HNCO and NH2CHO. In addition, other organic species such as CH3CN have been…

Observations are presented of emission lines from organic molecules at frequencies 32 - 50 GHz in the vicinity of Chamaeleon MMS1. This chemically-rich dense cloud core habours an extremely young, very low-luminosity protostellar object and…

We report on the detection of vinyl cyanide (CH2CHCN), cyanomethyl radical (CH2CN), methylacetylene (CH3CCH) and thioformaldehyde (H2CS) in the C-rich star IRC +10216. These species, which are all known to exist in dark clouds, are detected…

Nitrogen-bearing complex organic molecules have been commonly detected in the gas phase but not yet in interstellar ices. This has led to the long-standing question of whether these molecules form in the gas phase or in ices. $\textit{James…