Related papers: Interstellar and circumstellar fullerenes
An overview is presented of the main properties of the interstellar medium. Evidence is summarized that the interstellar medium is highly turbulent, driven on different length scales by various energetic processes. Large-scale turbulence…
We present a model for the formation of large organic molecules in dark clouds. The molecules are produced in the high density gas-phase that exists immediately after ice mantles are explosively sublimated. The explosions are initiated by…
Nitrogen-bearing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (N-PAHs) are key precursors to complex organic molecules in both the interstellar medium and the nitrogen-rich planetary atmospheres. Despite the recent detections of nitrogen-functionalized…
High spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atomic interstellar medium in nearby dwarf galaxies reveal evidence for warm and cold neutral gas, just like the phases in our own Galaxy. The cold or quiescent phase (about 20% of…
Complex organic molecules, such as propylene (CH3CHCH2), are detected in molecular clouds (such as TMC1) with high fractional abundances (~2.10^{-9}, relative to hydrogen) that cannot be explained by gas-phase chemical reactions under…
In the interstellar medium of the Milky Way, certain elements -- e.g., Mg, Si, Al, Ca, Ti, Fe -- reside predominantly in interstellar dust grains. These grains absorb, scatter, and emit electromagnetic radiation, heat the interstellar…
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…
Episodic accretion in protostars leads to luminosity outbursts that end up heating their surroundings. This rise in temperature pushes the snow lines back, enabling the desorption of chemical species from dust grain surfaces, which may…
We report the first detection in the interstellar medium of $N$-cyanomethanimine (H$_2$CNCN), the stable dimer of HCN of highest energy, and the most complex organic molecule identified in space containing the prebiotically relevant NCN…
In the first paper in this series, we proposed a new framework in which to model the chemical evolution of globular clusters. This model, is predicated upon the assumption that clusters form within an interstellar medium enriched locally by…
Although H$_{2}$ is the simplest and the most abundant molecule in the Universe, its formation in the interstellar medium, especially in the photodissociation regions is far from being fully understood. According to suggestions, the…
New type of nonlinear (anharmonic) excitations -- bushes of vibrational modes -- in physical systems with point or space symmetry are discussed. All infrared active and Raman active bushes for C60 fulerene are found by means of special…
Star-formation in the outer Galaxy is thought to be different from the inner Galaxy, as it is subject to different environmental parameters such as metallicity, interstellar radiation field, or mass surface density that all change with…
We investigate the molecular evolution and D/H abundance ratios that develop as star formation proceeds from a dense-cloud core to a protostellar core, by solving a gas-grain reaction network applied to a 1-D radiative hydrodynamic model…
Recent work by Kocheril \textit{et al.}\cite{kocheril2025} claimed that phenylium--the cyclic structure of the \ce{C6H5+} species--is unreactive toward key interstellar molecules such as molecular hydrogen (\ce{H2}) and acetylene…
The largest known molecule in space, C60 , has been detected in its neutral and cationic form through its vibrational, UV-driven fluorescence emission spectrum and its electronic absorption spectrum, respectively. The detection of several…
The circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich AGB stars show a chemical complexity that is exemplified by the prototypical object IRC +10216, in which about 60 different molecules have been detected to date. Most of these species are carbon…
Filamentary structures are ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium. The concentrated molecular mass in the filaments allows fragmentation to occur in a shorter timescale than the timescale of the global collapse. Such hierarchical…
We report the discovery of propylene (also called propene, CH_2CHCH_3) with the IRAM 30-m radio telescope toward the dark cloud TMC-1. Propylene is the most saturated hydrocarbon ever detected in space through radio astronomical techniques.…
Large-scale filaments ubiquitously exist in the Galactic interstellar medium, and their radial profiles offer insights into their formation mechanisms. We present a statistical analysis of molecular hydrogen column density ($\rm N(H_2)$)…