Related papers: Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps
This paper reviews the first results of observations of H2O line emission with Herschel-HIFI towards high-mass star-forming regions, obtained within the WISH guaranteed time program. The data reveal three kinds of gas-phase H2O: `cloud…
Aims: Our aims are threefold: a) To compare the $uv$ and mm-wave results; b) to interpret 13CO and 12CO abundances in terms of the physical processes which separately and jointly determine them; c) to interpret observed J=1-0 rotational…
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…
The [CII] fine--structure line at 158um is an excellent tracer of the warm diffuse gas in the ISM and the interfaces between molecular clouds and their surrounding atomic and ionized envelopes. Here we present the initial results from…
Sufficiently massive clumps of molecular gas collapse under self-gravity and fragment to spawn a cluster of stars that have a range of masses. We investigate observationally the early stages of formation of a stellar cluster in a massive…
The dominant form of oxygen in cold molecular clouds is gas-phase carbon monoxide (CO) and ice-phase water (H$_2$O). Yet, in planet-forming disks around young stars, gas-phase CO and H$_2$O are less abundant relative to their ISM values,…
The onset of massive star formation is not well understood because of observational and theoretical difficulties. To find the dense and cold clumps where massive star formation can take place, we compiled a sample of high infrared…
CO is the most widely used gas tracer of protoplanetary disks. Its abundance is usually assumed to be an interstellar ratio throughout the warm molecular layer of the disk. But recent observations of low CO gas abundance in many…
The formation of methanol (CH3OH) on icy grain mantles during the star formation cycle is mainly associated with the CO freeze-out stage. Yet there are reasons to believe that CH3OH also can form at an earlier period of interstellar ice…
(Abridged) We present a large sample of o-H$_2$D$^+$ observations in high-mass star-forming regions and discuss possible empirical correlations with relevant physical quantities to assess its role as a chronometer of star-forming regions…
The bulk of the molecular component in galaxies is made of cold H2, which is not observed directly, but which abundance is derived from indirect tracers such as CO emission. The CO to H2 conversion ratio remains uncertain, and may vary by…
The presence of H3+ in the interstellar medium was forecast almost four decades ago. Almost three decades ago it was asserted that its reactions with neutral molecular and atomic species directly lead to the production of many of the…
Molecular gas, modest in mass yet pivotal within the cosmic inventory, regulates baryon cycling as the immediate fuel for star formation. Across most of cosmic history, its reservoir has remained elusive, with only the tip of the iceberg…
(Abridged) Resolved observations of the CO emission from $z=1-3$ star-forming galaxies are becoming increasingly common, with new high-resolution surveys on the horizon. We aim to inform the interpretation of this resolved CO emission by…
We report the detection of D2CO in a sample of starless dense cores, in which we previously measured the degree of CO depletion. The deuterium fractionation is found extremely high, [D2CO]/[H2CO] ~ 1-10 %, similar to that reported in…
New insights into the formation of interstellar formamide, a species of great relevance in prebiotic chemistry, are provided by electronic structure and kinetic calculations for the reaction NH2 + H2CO -> NH2CHO + H. Contrarily to what…
We have observed several cloud cores in the Orion B (L1630) molecular cloud in the 2-1 transitions of C18O, C17O and 13C18O. We use these data to show that a model where the cores consist of very optically thick C18O clumps cannot explain…
H$_2$CO ice on dust grains is an important precursor of complex organic molecules (COMs). H$_2$CO gas can be readily observed in protoplanetary disks and may be used to trace COM chemistry. However, its utility as a COM probe is currently…
The cold outer regions of protoplanetary disks are expected to contain a midplane-centered layer where gas-phase CO molecules freeze out and their overall abundance is low. The layer then manifests itself as a void in the channel maps of CO…
A study of the chemical structure of the envelopes around a sample protostars is introduced. Physical models for the envelopes derived using 1D radiative transfer modeling of their dust continuum emission are used as input for Monte Carlo…