Related papers: Hydrogen isotope exchanges between water and metha…
At the low temperatures ($\sim$10 K) and high densities ($\sim$100,000 H$_2$ molecules per cc) of molecular cloud cores and protostellar envelopes, a large amount of molecular species (in particular those containing C and O) freeze-out onto…
We report a detection in the interstellar medium of an infrared transition within the electronic ground state of the deuterated hydrogen molecule, HD. Through a deep integration with the Short-Wavelength-Spectrometer on ISO, the pure…
Water in outflows from protostars originates either as a result of gas-phase synthesis from atomic oxygen at T > 200 K, or from sputtered ice mantles containing water ice. We aim to quantify the contribution of the two mechanisms that lead…
We report the first high angular resolution imaging (3.4\arcsec $\times$ 3.0\arcsec) of deuterated formaldehyde (HDCO) toward Orion--KL, carried out with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We find that the spatial distribution of the…
Column density ratios of complex organic molecules are generally constant across protostellar systems with some low-level scatter. However, the scatter in formamide (NH$_2$CHO) to methanol (CH$_3$OH) column density ratio is one of the…
(Abridged) We aim to determine the degrees of CO depletion, deuterium fractionation, and ionisation in a sample of seven massive clumps associated with IRDCs. The APEX telescope was used to observe the C17O(2-1), H13CO+(3-2), DCO+(3-2),…
Despite the low elemental deuterium abundance in the Galaxy, enhanced molecular D/H ratios have been found in the environments of low-mass star forming regions, and in particular the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16293-2422. The CHESS (Chemical…
The triatomic hydrogen ion H3+ is one of the most important species for the gas phase chemistry of the interstellar medium. Observations of H3+ are used to constrain important physical and chemical parameters of interstellar environments.…
Comets have similar compositions to interstellar medium ices, suggesting at least some of their molecules maybe inherited from an earlier stage of evolution. To investigate the degree to which this might have occurred we compare the…
Water (H2O) ice is an important solid constituent of many astrophysical environments. To comprehend the role of such ices in the chemistry and evolution of dense molecular clouds and comets, it is necessary to understand the freeze-out,…
The detection of complex organic molecules (COMs) toward dense, collapsing prestellar cores has sparked interest in the fields of astrochemistry and astrobiology, yet the mechanisms for COM formation are still debated. It was originally…
The D/H ratios of carbonaceous chondrites, believed to reflect that of water in the inner early solar system, are intermediate between the protosolar value and that of most comets. The isotopic composition of cometary water has been…
Methane is one of the simplest stable molecules that is both abundant and widely distributed across space. It is thought to have partial origin from interstellar molecular clouds, which are near the beginning of the star formation cycle.…
Deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, is a key tracer of the formation of the Solar System. Recent JWST observations have expanded the dataset of D/H ratios in methane on the KBOs Eris and Makemake, providing new insights into their…
Water/glycerol mixtures are common for experiments with biomacromolecules at cryogenic temperatures due to their vitrification properties. Above the glass transition temperature, they undergo liquid-liquid phase separation. Using the novel…
Based on recent work, formamide might be a potentially very important molecule in the emergence of terrestrial life. Although detected in the interstellar medium for decades, its formation route is still debated, whether in the gas phase or…
Herschel-PACS measurements of the rotational R(0) and R(1) HD lines in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune are analyzed in order to derive a D/H ratio with improved precision for both planets. The derivation of the D/H ratio includes also…
Analyses of spectra obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite, together with spectra from the Copernicus and IMAPS instruments, reveal an unexplained very wide range in the observed deuterium/hydrogen (D/H)…
An accurate value of the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio in the local interstellar medium (LISM) and a better understanding of the D/H variations with position in the Galactic disk can provide essential information on the primordial D/H…
The recent observation of complex organic molecules (COMs) in interstellar ices by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), along with previous gas-phase detections, underscores the importance of grain surface and ice mantle chemistry in the…