Related papers: Water and Methanol Ice in L1544
An extensive search for the complex molecule trans-ethyl methyl ether towards several hot core regions has been performed. Using the IRAM 30m telescope and the SEST 15m we looked at several frequencies where trans-ethyl methyl ether has…
Recent studies suggest that infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) have the potential of harboring the earliest stages of massive star formation and indeed evidence for this is found toward distinct regions within them. We present a study with the…
Molecular inventories in starless cores are powerful tools for probing the physical and chemical structures at the earliest stages of star formation. Wide-band spectral scans are invaluable for obtaining a comprehensive view of the chemical…
The relative abundances of singly-deuterated methanol isotopologues, [CH$_{2}$DOH]/[CH$_{3}$OD], in star-forming regions deviate from the statistically expected ratio of 3. In Orion KL, the nearest high-mass star-forming region to Earth,…
Complex organic molecules (COMs) have been identified in different environments in star- forming regions. Laboratory studies show that COMs form in the solid state, on icy grains, typically following a non-energetic (atom-addition) or…
Chemical models and experiments indicate that interstellar dust grains and their ice mantles play an important role in the production of complex organic molecules (COMs). To date, the most complex solid-phase molecule detected with…
The interstellar medium is known to be chemically complex. Organic molecules with up to 11 atoms have been detected in the interstellar medium, and are believed to be formed on the ices around dust grains. The ices can be released into the…
L1521E is a dense starless core in Taurus that was found to have relatively low molecular depletion by earlier studies, thus suggesting a recent formation. We aim to characterize the chemical structure of L1521E and compare it to the more…
Methanol (CH$_3$OH) and formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) are chemically coupled organic molecules proposed to act as an intermediate step between simple molecules and more complex prebiotic compounds. Their abundance distributions across disks…
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…
The successive addition of H atoms to CO in the solid phase has been hitherto regarded as the primary route to form methanol in dark molecular clouds. However, recent Monte Carlo simulations of interstellar ices alternatively suggested the…
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC), gas-rich dwarf companions of the Milky Way, are the nearest laboratories for detailed studies on the formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs) under metal poor…
We report the result of a systematic methanol observation toward IRAS 19312+1950. The properties of the SiO, H2O and OH masers of this object are consistent with those of mass-losing evolved stars, but some other properties are difficult to…
Gas-phase complex organic molecules have been detected toward a range of high- and low-mass star-forming regions at abundances which cannot be explained by any known gas-phase chemistry. Recent laboratory experiments show that UV…
The outer Galaxy is an environment with metallicity lower than the Solar one and, 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…
We present spectroscopic observations of a sample of 15 embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). These observations were obtained with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) as part of the SAGE-Spec Legacy…
The study of hot corinos in Solar-like protostars has been so far mostly limited to the Class 0 phase, hampering our understanding of their origin and evolution. In addition, recent evidence suggests that planet formation starts already…
Ethanol (CH$_3$CH$_2$OH) is a relatively common molecule, often found in star forming regions. Recent studies suggest that it could be a parent molecule of several so-called interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs). Yet, the formation…
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,…
Observations of star forming environments revealed that the abundances of some deuterated interstellar molecules are markedly larger than the cosmic D/H ratio of 10-5. Possible reasons for this pointed to grain surface chemistry. How- ever,…