Related papers: Complex organic molecules in comets from remote-se…
Recent observations of the pre-stellar core L1544 and the younger starless core L1498 have revealed that complex organic molecules (COMs) are enhanced in the gas phase toward their outer and intermediate-density shells. Our goal is to…
Interstellar complex organic molecules (COMs) in solar-like young stellar objects (YSOs), particularly within protostellar disks, are of significant interest due to their potential connection to prebiotic chemistry in emerging planetary…
Ethanediol is one of the largest complex organic molecules detected in space thus far. It has been found in different types of molecular clouds. The two propanediol isomers are the next larger diols. Hence, they are viable candidates to be…
G31.41+0.31 is a well known chemically rich hot molecular core (HMC). Using Band 3 observations of Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), we have analyzed the chemical and physical properties of the source. We have identified methyl…
To date, 204 individual molecular species, comprised of 16 different elements, have been detected in the interstellar and circumstellar medium by astronomical observations. These molecules range in size from two atoms to seventy, and have…
Comet composition provides critical information on the chemical and physical processes that took place during the formation of the Solar system. We report here on millimetre spectroscopic observations of the long-period bright comet C/2014…
The chemistry of complex organic molecules in interstellar dark clouds is still highly uncertain in part because of the lack of constraining observations. Orion is the closest massive star-forming region, and observations making use of ALMA…
The outer Galaxy is an environment with metallicity lower than the Solar one. Because of this, the formation and survival of molecules in star-forming regions located in the inner and outer Galaxy is expected to be different. To gain…
Large interstellar organic molecules are potential precursors of prebiotic molecules. Their formation pathways and chemical relationships with one another and simpler molecules are therefore of great interest. In this paper, we address the…
We measured organic volatiles (CH4, CH3OH, C2H6, H2CO), CO, and water in comet 8P/Tuttle, a comet from the Oort cloud reservoir now in a short-period Halley-type orbit. We compare its composition with two other comets in Halley-type orbits,…
We study the origin of large abundances of complex organic molecules in the Galactic center (GC). We carried out a systematic study of the complex organic molecules CH3OH, C2H5OH, (CH3)2O, HCOOCH3, HCOOH, CH3COOH, H2CO, and CS toward 40 GC…
Hot cores are small ($\lesssim$0.1 pc), dense ($\geq$10$^6$ cm$^{-3}$), and hot ($>$100 K) regions around massive protostars and are one of the main production sites of complex organic molecules (COMs, $\geq6$ atoms, including carbon). The…
Comets formed in the outer and cold parts of the disk which eventually evolved into our Solar System. Assuming that the comets have undergone no major processing, studying their composition provides insight in the pristine composition of…
We report on the results of a spectroscopic survey of 130 comets that was conducted at McDonald observatory from 1980 through 2008. Some of the comets were observed on only one night, while others were observed repeatedly. For 20 of these…
Simple and complex organic molecules (COMs) are observed along different phases of star and planet formation and have been successfully identified in prestellar environments such as dark and translucent clouds. Yet the picture of organic…
The puzzling complexity of terrestrial biomolecules is driving the search for complex organic molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM) and serves as a motivation for many in situ studies of reservoirs of extraterrestrial organics from…
We discuss the connection between the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds and those characteristics of cometary matter that could be remnants of it. The chemical evolution observed to occur in molecular clouds is summarized and a model…
Almost 200 different species have been detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) during the last decades, revealing not only simple species but complex molecules with more than 6 atoms. Other exotic compounds, like the weakly-bound dimer…
The field of astrochemistry has seen major advances triggered by the completion of new powerful radio telescopes, with gains in sensitivity of receivers and in bandwidth. To date, about 330 molecular species are detected, in interstellar…
Complex organic molecules have been observed for decades in the interstellar medium. Some of them might be considered as small bricks of the macromolecules at the base of terrestrial life. It is hence particularly important to understand…