Related papers: Biomolecules in the Interstellar Medium and Comets

Our understanding of how molecular clouds form in the interstellar medium (ISM) would be greatly helped if we had a reliable observational tracer of the gas flows responsible for forming the clouds. Fine structure emission from singly…

Recent observations have revealed the existence of Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in cold dense cores and prestellar cores. The presence of these molecules in such cold conditions is not well understood and remains a matter of debate…

There remain many open questions relating to the depletion of elements into dust, e.g., exactly how are C and O incorporated into dust in dense clouds and, in particular, what drives the disappearance of oxygen in the denser interstellar…

Context: The chemical composition of a molecular cloud changes dramatically as it collapses to form a low-mass protostar and circumstellar disk. Two-dimensional (2D) chemodynamical models are required to properly study this process. Aims:…

Interstellar space is filled with a dilute mixture of charged particles, atoms, molecules and dust grains, called the interstellar medium (ISM). Understanding its physical properties and dynamical behavior is of pivotal importance to many…

Notwithstanding manufacture of complex organic molecules from impacting cometary and icy planet surface analogues is well-established, dust grain-grain collisions driven by turbulence in interstellar or circumstellar regions may represent a…

We present a review of observational studies of high-mass star formation, based mainly on our own research. It includes surveys of high-mass star-forming regions in various molecular lines and in continuum, investigations of filamentary…

In situ research on cometary chemistry began when measurements from the Giotto mission at comet 1P/Halley revealed the presence of complex organics in the coma. New telescopes and space missions have provided detailed remote and in situ…

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…

Organic macromolecular matter is the dominant carrier of volatile elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and noble gases in chondrites -- the rocky building blocks from which Earth formed. How this macromolecular substance formed in space is…

During the formation of stars, the accretion of the surrounding material toward the central object is thought to undergo strong luminosity outbursts, followed by long periods of relative quiescence, even at the early stages of star…

(Abridged) Aims & Methods. A two-dimensional, semi-analytical model is presented that follows, for the first time, the chemical evolution from a collapsing molecular cloud (a pre-stellar core) to a protostar and circumstellar disk. The…

Determining the level of chemical complexity within dense starless and gravitationally bound prestellar cores is crucial for constructing chemical models, which subsequently constrain the initial chemical conditions of star formation. We…

Chemical models have been developed over the years by astrophysicists to study the pro- cesses at play in the various environments of the interstellar medium (ISM) that define the chemical composition of the gas and the dust. These…

During their thermally pulsing phase, Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars eject material that forms extended dusty envelopes. Visible polarimetric imaging found clumpy dust clouds within two stellar radii of several oxygen-rich stars.…

Carbon macromolecules are intermediates between small gas-phase species and larger dust structures. I illustrate how observations and dedicated laboratory experiments support this picture.

The detection of complex organic molecules (COMs) toward dense, collapsing prestellar cores has sparked interest in the fields of astrochemistry and astrobiology, yet the mechanisms for COM formation are still debated. It was originally…

I review recent observations of molecular gas in the halo of the Milky Way and in the Magellanic Clouds. Far-ultraviolet absorption line studies of molecular hydrogen (H_2) with ORFEUS and FUSE have unveiled the presence of a diffuse…

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,…

The isomerism of molecules in the interstellar medium and the mechanisms behind it are essential questions in the chemistry of organic molecules in space. In particular, for the simple formic and thioformic acids, the low temperatures found…