Related papers: Carbon Chemistry in interstellar clouds
We study conditions under which carbon clusters of different sizes form and stabilize. {We describe an approach to equilibrium by simulating tenuous carbon gas dynamics to long times.} First, we use reactive molecular dynamics simulations…
Emission and absorption line observations of molecules in late-type stars are a vital component in our understanding of stellar evolution, dust formation and mass loss in these objects. The molecular composition of the gas in the…
A brief introduction and overview of the astrochemistry of dust, ice and gas and their interplay is presented, aimed at non-specialists. The importance of basic chemical physics studies of critical reactions is illustrated through a number…
The past decade has led to significant improvements in our understanding of the physical structure of the molecular cores of cold dark clouds. Observational efforts, in combination with improved knowledge of cloud structure, now provide…
Prompted by the ongoing interest in Spitzer Infrared Spectrometer spectra of carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, we have investigated the circumstellar chemistry of carbon stars in low-metallicity environments. Consistent with…
The past century of interstellar dust has brought us from first ignoring it to finding that it is an important component of the interstellar medium and plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies, the formation of stars and…
Diffuse and translucent molecular clouds fill a vast majority of the interstellar space in the galactic disk being thus the most typical objects of the Interstellar Medium (ISM). Recent advances in observational techniques of modern optical…
Recent developments in the chemical modelling of cometary comae are described. We discuss the cyanide chemistry and present new HCN observations of the recent comet C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang). The connection between interstellar and cometary…
Our current understanding of interstellar dust is summarized at an introductory level. Submicron-sized interstellar dust grains absorb and scatter light, and reradiate the absorbed energy in the infrared. The grain population spans a range…
There is accumulating evidence for the presence of complex molecules, including carbon-bearing and organic molecules, in the interstellar medium. Much of this evidence comes to us from studies of chemical composition, photo- and…
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…
The metal content of clusters of galaxies and its relation to their stellar content is revisited making use of a cluster sample for which all four basic parameters are homogeneously measured within consistent radii, namely core-excised…
As building blocks of dust, rocky planets, and even complex life, the chemical elements heavier than hydrogen (H) and helium (He) - called "metals" in astronomy - play an essential role in our Universe and its evolution. Up to Fe and Ni,…
Comets have similar compositions to interstellar medium ices, suggesting at least some of their molecules maybe inherited from an earlier stage of evolution. To investigate the degree to which this might have occurred we compare the…
The content of interstellar clouds, in particular the inventory of diffuse molecular gas, remains uncertain. We identified a sample of isolated clouds, approximately 100 solar masses in size, and used the dust content to estimate the total…
This paper provides a brief overview of the journey of molecules through the Cosmos, from local diffuse interstellar clouds and PDRs to distant galaxies, and from cold dark clouds to hot star-forming cores, protoplanetary disks,…
Carbon is one of the most abundant metals in the universe because of its synthesis in the fundamental triple alpha reaction. The knowledge of carbon abundances in different environments is one key ingredient to our understanding of stellar…
The circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich AGB stars show a chemical complexity that is exemplified by the prototypical object IRC +10216, in which about 60 different molecules have been detected to date. Most of these species are carbon…
We have used a coupled dynamical and chemical model to examine the chemical changes induced by the passage of an interstellar shock in well shielded regions. Using this model we demonstrate that the formation of water in a shock will be…
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)…