Related papers: Biomolecules in the Interstellar Medium and Comets
We survey the current situation regarding chemical modelling of the synthesis of molecules in the interstellar medium. The present state of knowledge concerning the rate coefficients and their uncertainties for the major gas-phase processes…
Star-forming regions show a rich and varied chemistry, including the presence of complex organic molecules - both in the cold gas distributed on large scales, and in the hot regions close to young stars where protoplanetary disks arise.…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium (ISM) of our own and external galaxies, might have been incorporated into comets if they are formed from relatively unprocessed interstellar…
Aims. We study the effect of large scale dynamics on the molecular composition of the dense interstellar medium during the transition between diffuse to dense clouds. Methods. We followed the formation of dense clouds (on sub-parsec scales)…
Complex organic molecules (COMs) are thought to be the precursors of pre-biotic molecules and are observed in many protostellar sources. For this paper we studied the formation of COMs during star formation and their evolution in the…
The study of phosphorus chemistry in the interstellar medium has become a topic of growing interest in astrobiology, because it is plausible that a wide range of P-bearing molecules were introduced in the early Earth by the impact of…
Molecules in space are synthesized via a large variety of gas-phase reactions, and reactions on dust-grain surfaces, where the surface acts as a catalyst. Especially, saturated, hydrogen-rich molecules are formed through surface chemistry.…
One of the stumbling blocks for studying the evolution of interstellar molecules is the lack of adequate knowledge of the rate co-efficients of various reactions which take place in the Interstellar medium and molecular clouds. Some of the…
The past century of interstellar dust has brought us from first ignoring it to finding that it plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies. Current observational results in our galaxy provide a complex physical and chemical…
The search for complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium (ISM) has revealed species of ever greater complexity. This search relies on the progress made in the laboratory to characterize their rotational spectra. Our understanding…
Using studies of nearby star formation with Spitzer, I will argue that star formation is restricted to dense cores within molecular clouds. The nature of these dense cores and their connection to star formation will be discussed. Their…
Context. Interstellar dust particles, which represent 1% of the total mass, are recognized to be very powerful interstellar catalysts in star-forming regions. The presence of dust can have a strong impact on the chemical composition of…
Observations of gaseous complex organic molecules (COMs) in cold starless and prestellar cloud cores require efficient desorption of the COMs and their parent species from icy mantles on interstellar grains. With a simple astrochemical…
The recently discovered first high velocity hyperbolic objects passing through the Solar System, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, have raised the question about near term missions to Interstellar Objects. In situ spacecraft exploration of these…
The simultaneous detection of organic molecules of the form C$_2$H$_{\text{n}}$O, such as ketene (CH$_2$CO), acetaldehyde (CH$_3$CHO), and ethanol (CH$_3$CH$_2$OH), toward early star-forming regions offers hints of shared chemical history.…
The accumulation, compression and cooling of the ambient interstellar medium (ISM) in large-scale flows powered by OB cluster feedback can drive the production of dense molecular clouds. We review the current state of the field, with a…
Complex organic molecules (COMs) are thought to form on icy dust grains in the earliest phase of star formation. The evolution of these COMs from the youngest Class 0/I protostellar phases toward the more evolved Class II phase is still not…
Carbon ($^3$P) atom is a reactive species that, according to laboratory experiments and theoretical calculations, condensates with interstellar ice components. This fact is of uttermost importance for the chemistry in the interstellar…
We construct spherical, hydrostatic models of dense molecular cores and Bok globules consisting of two distinct, spatially separate gas components: a central, isothermal region surrounded by a negative-index, polytropic envelope. The clouds…
Many complex organic molecules (COMs) in star-forming regions are believed to form on dust grains. We thus expect both the reduced metallicity and dust-to-gas ratio in the outer Galaxy to have an impact on the chemical composition of these…