Related papers: Observations of the Icy Universe
Currently ~36 different absorption bands have been detected in the infrared spectra of cold, dense interstellar and circumstellar environments. These are attributed to the vibrational transitions of ~17 different molecules frozen on dust…
Icy grain mantles are commonly observed through infrared spectroscopy toward dense clouds, cloud cores, protostellar envelopes and protoplanetary disks. Up to 80% of the available oxygen, carbon and nitrogen are found in such ices; the most…
Although still poorly understood, the chemistry that occurs on the surfaces of interstellar dust particles profoundly affects the growth of molecules in the interstellar medium. An important set of surface reactions produces icy mantles of…
Context. Interstellar ice is the main form of metal species in dark molecular clouds. Experiments and observations have shown that the ice is significantly processed after the freeze-out of molecules onto grains. The processing is caused by…
Ice mantles play a crucial role in shaping the astrochemical inventory of molecules during star and planet formation. Small-scale molecular processes have a profound impact on large-scale astronomical evolution. The areas of solid-state…
Icy grain mantles are the main reservoir of the volatile elements that link chemical processes in dark, interstellar clouds with the formation of planets and composition of their atmospheres. The initial ice composition is set in the cold,…
In regions where stars form, variations in density and temperature can cause gas to freeze-out onto dust grains forming ice mantles, which influences the chemical composition of a cloud. The aim of this paper is to understand in detail the…
In dense clouds of the interstellar medium, dust grains are covered by ice mantles, dominated by H$_2$O. CO and CO$_2$ are common ice components observed in infrared spectra, while infrared inactive N$_2$ is expected to be present in the…
Infrared spectroscopic observations toward objects obscured by dense cloud material show that H$_2$O, CO and, likely, CO$_2$ are important constituents of interstellar ice mantles. In order to accurately calculate the column densities of…
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…
The abundances of ices in planetary environments have historically been obtained through measurements of near-infrared absorption features (lambda = 1.0-2.5 microns), and near-IR transmission measurements of materials present in the…
A model is proposed for the formation of water ice mantles on grains in interstellar clouds. This occurs by direct accretion of monomers from the gas, be they formed by gas or surface reactions. The model predicts the existence of a…
Context. The molecular composition of interstellar ice mantles is defined by gas-grain processes in molecular clouds, with the main components being $H_2O$, $CO$, and $CO_2$. $CH_3OH$ ice is detected towards the denser regions, where large…
Grains of ice are formed spontaneously when water vapor is injected into a weakly-ionized laboratory plasma in which the background gas has been cooled to cryogenic temperatures comparable to those of deep space. These ice grains are…
Analyses of infrared signatures of CO$_2$ in water dominated ices in the ISM can give information on the physical state of CO$_2$ in icy grains and on the thermal history of the ices themselves. In many sources, CO$_2$ was found in the…
Acetic acid (CH3COOH) was detected in the gas toward interstellar clouds, hot cores, protostars and comets. Its formation in ice mantles was proposed and acetic acid awaits detection in the infrared spectra of the ice as most other COMs…
Over the last decade, observations of the cool interstellar medium in distant galaxies via molecular and atomic fine structure line emission has gone from a curious look into a few extreme, rare objects, to a mainstream tool to study galaxy…
The results of experiments on the formation of molecular hydrogen on low density and high density amorphous ice surfaces are analyzed using a rate equation model. The activation energy barriers for the relevant diffusion and desorption…
We investigate the formation and evolution of interstellar dust-grain ices under dark-cloud conditions, with a particular emphasis on CO2. We use a three-phase model (gas/surface/mantle) to simulate the coupled gas--grain chemistry,…
The motivation to study experimentally CO ice under mimicked interstellar conditions is supported by the large CO gas abundances and ubiquitous presence of CO in icy grain mantles. Upon irradiation in its pure ice form, this highly stable…