Related papers: Interstellar formamide (NH$_2$CHO), a key prebioti…
Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur (CHNOPS) play key roles in the origin and proliferation of life on Earth. Given the universality of physics and chemistry, not least the ubiquity of water as a solvent and carbon as…
Complex organics are now commonly found in meteorites, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites, and interplanetary dust particles. The chemical composition and possible origin of these organics are presented. Specifically, we discuss the…
We conducted survey observations of a glycine precursor, methanimine or methylenimine (CH$_2$NH), with the NRO 45 m telescope and the SMT telescope towards 12 high-mass and two low-mass star-forming regions in order to increase number of…
The amide-related molecules are essential for the formation of the other complex bio-molecules and an understanding of the prebiotic chemistry in the interstellar medium (ISM). We presented the first detection of the rotational emission…
Fullerenes are a particularly stable class of carbon molecules in the shape of a hollow sphere or ellipsoid that might be formed in the outflows of carbon stars. Once injected into the interstellar medium (ISM), these stable species survive…
We report the first detection in the interstellar medium of a C$_2$H$_5$O$_2$N isomer: $syn$-glycolamide (NH$_2$C(O)CH$_2$OH). The exquisite sensitivity at sub-mK levels of an ultra-deep spectral survey carried out with the Yebes 40m and…
(Abridged) Complex organic molecules (COMs) are considered essential precursors to prebiotic species. While COMs were once expected to be efficiently destroyed under UV-irradiated conditions, detections in photodissociation regions (PDRs)…
Carbon is an essential element for a habitable world. Inner (r < 3 au) disk planetary carbon compositions are strongly influenced by supply and survival of carbonaceous solids. Here we trace the journey of carbon from the interstellar…
Planets form and obtain their compositions from the leftover material present in protoplanetary disks of dust and gas surrounding young stars. The chemical make-up of a disk influences every aspect of planetary composition including their…
It has been a long-standing problem to detect interstellar glycine (NH$_2$CH$_2$COOH), the simplest amino acid, in studying a possible relation between the Universe and origin of life. In the last about 40 years all surveys of glycine…
The chemical inventory of planets is determined by the physical and chemical processes that govern the early phases of star formation. The aim is to investigate N-bearing complex organic molecules towards two Class 0 protostars (B1-c and…
Knowledge of the composition of material that will form planets is crucial to understand planetary diversity and the occurrence of potentially habitable planets. Ultimately, it is the chemistry in circumstellar disks that determines the…
The study of the early phases of star and planet formation is important to understand the physical and chemical history of stellar systems such as our own. In particular, protostars born in rich clusters are prototypes of the young Solar…
Prebiotic molecules, fundamental building blocks for the origin of life, have been found in carbonaceous chondrites. The exogenous delivery of these organic molecules onto the Hadean Earth could have sparked the polymerization of the first…
Solid state astrochemical reaction pathways have the potential to link the formation of small nitrogen-bearing species, like NH3 and HNCO, and prebiotic molecules, specifically amino acids. To date, the chemical origin of such small…
The past century of interstellar dust has brought us from first ignoring it to finding that it is an important component of the interstellar medium and plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies, the formation of stars and…
Over 200 molecules have been detected in multiple extraterrestrial environments, including glycolaldehyde (C2(H2O)2, GLA), a two-carbon sugar precursor that has been detected in regions of the interstellar medium. Its recent in situ…
In star formation regions, the complex organic molecules (COMs) that contain peptide bonds ($-$NH$-$C(=O)$-$) play a major role in the metabolic process because $-$NH$-$C(=O)$-$ is connected to amino acids (R-CHNH$_{2}$$-$COOH). Over the…
Remote and in-situ observations of cometary gases have revealed the presence of a wealth of complex organic molecules, including carbon chains, alcohols, imines and the amino acid glycine. Such chemical complexity in cometary material…
The search for the simplest amino acid, glycine (NH$_{2}$CH$_{2}$COOH), in the interstellar medium (ISM), has become a never-ending story for astrochemistry and astrophysics researchers because that molecule plays a possible connection…