Related papers: Icy molecule desorption in interstellar grain coll…
We investigate the uncertainties affecting the temperature profiles of dense cores of interstellar clouds. In regions shielded from external ultraviolet radiation, the problem is reduced to the balance between cosmic ray heating, line…
In dense molecular clouds collisions between dust grains alter the ISM-dust size distribution. We study this process by inserting the results from detailed numerical simulations of two colliding dust aggregates into a coagulation model that…
The origin of the grains with diameters less than 4 micron from the inclusions in Antarctic ice cores is discussed. It is proposed that these grains were initiated by ions stopped in the upper atmosphere. The ions form molecules, which…
Aims. The mobility of H atoms on the surface of interstellar dust grains at low temperature is still a matter of debate. In dense clouds, the hydrogenation of adsorbed species (i.e., CO), as well as the subsequent deuteration of the…
The degree of porosity in interstellar dust-grain material is poorly defined, although recent work has suggested that the grains could be highly porous. Aside from influencing the optical properties of the dust, porosity has the potential…
A longstanding problem in astrochemistry is how molecules can be maintained in the gas phase in dense inter- and circumstellar regions. Photodesorption is a non-thermal desorption mechanism, which may explain the small amounts of observed…
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,…
A detailed study of interstellar polarization efficiency toward molecular clouds is used to attempt discrimination between grain alignment mechanisms in dense regions of the ISM. Background field stars are used to probe polarization…
Dust grains grow in interstellar clouds by accretion and coagulation. In this paper, we focus on these two grain growth processes and numerically investigate how they interplay to increase the grain radii. We show that accretion efficiently…
Aggregation of ice particles is a fundamental process in the interstellar medium as well as in planet formation. Dedicated to study the contact physics of nm-ice particles we developed a thermal gradient force microscope. This allows us and…
Molecular oxygen has been detected in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko with a mean abundance of 3.80 $\pm$ 0.85\% by the ROSINA mass spectrometer on board the Rosetta spacecraft. To account for the presence of this species in…
Coagulation in the dense interstellar medium (ISM) is an important process that determines the size of the largest grains. We use submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) as laboratories of grain coagulation, since some of them host the densest ISM on…
Complex organic molecules serve as indicators of molecular diversity. Their detection on comets, planets, and moons has prompted inquiries into their origins, particularly the conditions conducive to their formation. One hypothesis suggests…
Solid O2 has been proposed as a possible reservoir for oxygen in dense clouds through freeze-out processes. The aim of this work is to characterize quantitatively the physical processes that are involved in the desorption kinetics of CO-O2…
Context. Matter that falls onto a protoplanetary disk (PPD) from a protostellar envelope is heated before it cools again. This induces sublimation and subsequent re-adsorption of ices that accumulated during the prestellar phase. Aims. We…
We study the evolution of molecular hydrogen on the grain surfaces and in the gas phase using both the rate equation (which tracks the average number of molecules) and the master equation (which tracks the expectation values of molecules).…
A solid-state feature was detected at around 2175 cm-1 towards 30 embedded young stellar objects in spectra obtained using the ESO VLT-ISAAC. We present results from laboratory studies of CO adsorbed at the surface of Zeolite wafers, where…
Several neutral species (MgI, SiI, CaI, FeI) have been detected in a weak MgII absorption line system (W_r(2796)~0.15 Angstroms) at z~0.45 along the sightline toward HE0001-2340. These observations require extreme physical conditions, as…
This paper assesses the implications of a recent discovery (Jenkins 2009) that atomic oxygen is being depleted from diffuse interstellar gas at a rate that cannot be accounted for by its presence in silicate and metallic oxide particles. To…
Surface processes on cosmic solids in cold astrophysical environments lead to gas phase depletion and molecular complexity. Most astrophysical models assume that the molecular ice forms a thick multilayer substrate, not interacting with the…