Related papers: Molecular abundances in low-mass protostellar enve…
Carbon monoxide (CO) is the most commonly used tracer of molecular gas in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. CO can be used to constrain the excitation and structure of the circumstellar environment. Absorption line spectroscopy…
Massive stars play an important role in the Universe. Unlike low-mass stars, the formation of these objects located at great distances is still unclear. It is expected to be governed by some combination of self-gravity, turbulence, and…
Observations of HDO are an important complement for studies of water, because they give strong constraints on the formation processes -- grain surfaces versus energetic process in the gas phase, e.g. in shocks. The HIFI observations of…
Molecular clouds are the cold regions of the Milky Way where stars form. They are enriched by rather complex molecules. Many of these molecules are believed to be synthesized on the icy surfaces of the interstellar submicron-sized dust…
Resolved molecular line observations are essential for gaining insight into the physical and chemical structure of protoplanetary disks, particularly in cold, dense regions where planets form and acquire their chemical compositions.…
Context. "Snow lines", marking regions where abundant volatiles freeze out onto the surface of dust grains, play an important role for planet growth and bulk composition in protoplanetary disks. They can already be observed in the envelopes…
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,…
(Abridged) We present evidence that low-mass starless cores, the simplest units of star formation, are systematically differentiated in their chemical composition. Molecules including CO and CS almost vanish near the core centers, where the…
We present observations of molecular high-energy radiation probes and report the first detections of CO+ toward W3 IRS5, a source containing ultracompact HII regions. UV radiation and X-rays from the central objects may enhance molecules…
Deuteration is a crucial tool to understand the complexity of interstellar chemical processes, especially when they involve the interplay of gas-phase and grain-surface chemistry. In the case of multiple deuteration, comparing observation…
Molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) is by far the most abundant molecule in the Universe. However, due to the low emissivity of H$_2$, carbon monoxide (CO) is widely used instead to trace molecular gas in galaxies. The relative abundances of these…
We present results from the Spitzer Space Telescope and molecular line observations of 9 species toward the dark cloud L43. The Spitzer images and molecular line maps suggest it has a starless core and a Class I protostar evolving in the…
Protostellar jets provide valuable insight into the evolutionary stage and formation history of star-forming cores in their earliest phases. We investigated the inner envelope structures of three extremely young protostars, selected for…
Deuterium fractionation in molecular ions, in particular HCO+, has been extensively used to estimate the degree of ionization in molecular clouds. This paper reviews recent work on ionization degree in homogeneous clouds. We will show that…
Planck cold clumps are among the most promising objects to investigate the initial conditions of the evolution of molecular clouds. In this work, by combing the dust emission data from the survey of Planck satellite with the molecular data…
Low mass star-forming regions are more complex than the simple spherically symmetric approximation that is often assumed. We apply a more realistic infall/outflow physical model to molecular/continuum observations of three late Class 0…
The formation pathways of deuterated species trace different regions of protoplanetary disks and may shed light into their physical structure. We aim to constrain the radial extent of main deuterated species; we are particularly interested…
Within low-mass star formation, water vapor plays a key role in the chemistry and energy balance of the circumstellar material. The Herschel Space Observatory will open up the possibility to observe water lines originating from a wide range…
Detections of molecular lines, mainly from H2$ and CO, reveal molecular material in planetary nebulae. Observations of a variety of molecules suggest that the molecular composition in these objects differs from that found in interstellar…
The high spatial and line sensitivity of ALMA opens the possibility of resolving emission from molecules in circumstellar disks. With an understanding of physical conditions under which molecules have high abundance, they can be used as…