Related papers: A radical route to interstellar propylene formatio…
We present a study of the elemental depletion in the interstellar medium. We combined the results of a Galatic model describing the gas physical conditions during the formation of dense cores with a full-gas-grain chemical model. During the…
Recent detections of complex organic molecules in dark clouds have rekindled interest in the astrochemical modeling of these environments. Because of its relative closeness and rich molecular complexity, TMC-1 has been extensively observed…
Molecular oxygen has been the subject of many observational searches as chemical models predicted it to be a reservoir of oxygen. Although it has been detected in two regions of the interstellar medium, its rarity is a challenge for…
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) have long been invoked in the study of interstellar and protostellar sources, but the unambiguous identification of any individual PAH has proven elusive until very recently. As a result, the…
It has recently been suggested that galaxies in the early Universe can grow through the accretion of cold gas, and that this may have been the main driver of star formation and stellar mass growth. Because the cold gas is essentially…
Titan's atmosphere is a natural laboratory for exploring the photochemical synthesis of organic molecules. Significant recent advances in the study of the atmosphere of Titan include: (a) detection of C$_3$ molecules: C$_3$H$_6$,…
Circumgalactic gas around massive galaxies generally has a volume-filling component -- an atmosphere -- with a temperature determined by the potential-well depth of the galaxy's halo. If the atmosphere is near hydrostatic equilibrium and is…
Evolved stars are primary sources for the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dust grains. Their circumstellar chemistry is usually designated as either oxygen-rich or carbon-rich, although dual-dust chemistry objects,…
Up to 90% of the chemical reactions during star formation occurs on ice surfaces, probably including the formation of complex organics. Only the most abundant ice species are however observed directly by infrared spectroscopy. This study…
Context. Recent Monte Carlo simulations and laboratory studies of interstellar ices have proposed an alternative pathway involving the radical-molecule H-atom abstraction reaction in the overall mechanism of methanol (CH3OH) formation in…
Observations with the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) onboard the {\it Infrared Space Observatory} (ISO) have led to the first detection of the methyl radical ${\rm CH_3}$ in the interstellar medium. The $\nu_2$ $Q-$branch at 16.5…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most ubiquitous compounds in the universe, accounting for up to ~25% of all interstellar carbon. Since most unsubstituted PAHs do not possess permanent dipole moments, they are invisible…
The largest non-cyclic molecules detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) are organic with a straight-chain carbon backbone. We report an interstellar detection of a branched alkyl molecule, iso-propyl cyanide (i-C3H7CN), with an abundance…
We investigate the chemical evolution of a forming molecular cloud behind an interstellar shock wave. We conduct three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the converging flow of atomic gas, including a simple chemical network…
Up to now, mostly relatively simple molecules have been detected in interstellar diffuse molecular clouds in our galaxy, but more complex species have been reported in the diffuse/translucent medium of a z = 0.89 spiral galaxy. We aim at…
Methanol ice is embedded in interstellar ice mantles present in dense molecular clouds. We aim to measure the sputtering efficiencies starting from different ice mantles of varying compositions experimentally, in order to evaluate their…
GEMS is an IRAM 30m Large Program whose aim is determining the elemental depletions and the ionization fraction in a set of prototypical star-forming regions. This paper presents the first results from the prototypical dark cloud TMC 1.…
Glycolaldehyde (HOCH$_2$CHO) and ethylene glycol ((CH$_2$OH)$_2$) are two complex organic molecules detected in the hot cores and hot corinos of several star-forming regions. The ethylene glycol/glycolaldehyde abundance ratio seems to show…
The high interstellar abundances of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their size distribution are the result of complex chemical processes implying dust, UV radiation, and the main gaseous components (H, C+, and O). These…
Context. The formation and destruction of molecules in the interstellar medium is a complex interplay between gas-phase reactions as well as processes on grain surfaces and within icy mantles. For many decades, the gas-phase composition of…