Related papers: Can DNA bases be produced during molecular cloud c…
A large fraction of the gas in the Galaxy is cold, dense, and molecular. If all this gas collapsed under the influence of gravity and formed stars in a local free-fall time, the star formation rate in the Galaxy would exceed that observed…
The thermochemistry of H2 and HD in non-collapsed, non-reionized primordial gas up to the end of the dark age is investigated with recent radiation-matter and chemical reaction rates taking into account the efficient coolant HD, and the…
There is an intrinsic relationship between the molecular evolution in primordial period and the properties of genomes and proteomes of contemporary species. The genomic data may help us understand the driving force of evolution of life at…
Phylogenetic methods have long been used in biology, and more recently have been extended to other fields - for example, linguistics and technology - to study evolutionary histories. Galaxies also have an evolutionary history, and fall…
The origin of life is one of the greatest mysteries. The mechanism for the synthesis of DNA is synonymous with the chemical origin of life, and theories have been developed along many lines of reasoning, but resolving all requirements…
Theory holds that a star born with an initial mass between about 8 and 140 times the mass of the Sun will end its life through the catastrophic gravitational collapse of its iron core to a neutron star or black hole. This core collapse…
Dust plays an important role in our understanding of the Universe, but it is not obvious yet how the dust in the distant universe was formed. I derived the dust yields per asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star and per supernova (SN) required…
DNA-coated colloids can self-assemble into an incredible diversity of crystal structures, but applications of this technology are limited by poor understanding and control over the dynamical crystallization pathways. To address this…
We propose a simple analytic theory for environmentally-dependent molecular cloud lifetimes, based on the large-scale (galactic) dynamics of the interstellar medium. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime is set by the time-scales for…
The transformation of organic molecules into the simplest self-replicating living system,a microorganism, is accomplished from a unique event or rare events that occurred early in the Universe. The subsequent dispersal on cosmic scales and…
Much of what we know about molecular clouds, and by extension star formation, comes from molecular line observations. Interpreting these correctly requires knowledge of the underlying molecular abundances. Simulations of molecular clouds…
Intergalactic filaments form the foundation of the cosmic web that connect galaxies together, and provide an important reservoir of gas for galaxy growth and accretion. Here we present very high resolution two-dimensional simulations of the…
Water is crucial for the emergence and evolution of life on Earth. Recent studies of the water content in early forming planetary systems similar to our own show that water is an abundant and ubiquitous molecule, initially synthesized on…
We have extensively mapped a sample of dense molecular clouds (L1512, TMC-1C, L1262, Per 7, L1389, L1251E) in lines of HC3N, CH3OH, SO and C^{18}O. We demonstrate that a high degree of chemical differentiation is present in all of the…
The deuterium fraction [N$_2$D$^+$]/[N$_2$H$^+$], may provide information about the ages of dense, cold gas structures, important to compare with dynamical models of cloud core formation and evolution. Here we introduce a complete chemical…
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…
We present a multiphase model for the evolution of elliptical galaxies. Diffuse gas, molecular clouds, stars and remnants are taken into account. Cloud--cloud collisions and stimulated processes are the main causes of star formation. The…
The core of a massive star (M > 8 Msun) eventually collapses. This implosion usually triggers a supernova (SN) explosion that ejects most of the stellar envelope and leaves behind a neutron star (NS) with a mass of up to about 2 Msun.…
The current study was developed to provide a database of relatively simple numerical simulations of protostellar collapse, as a template library for observations of cores and very young protostars, and for researchers who wish to test their…
Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds…