相关论文: Small Molecules, Big Impact: A tale of hydrides pa…
Interstellar hydrides -- that is, molecules containing a single heavy element atom with one or more hydrogen atoms -- were among the first molecules detected outside the solar system. They lie at the root of interstellar chemistry, being…
Chemistry plays a particular role in astrophysics. After atomic hydrogen, helium and their ions, the Universe probably contains more mass in molecules than in any other species. Molecule formation in the early, pre-galactic Universe may…
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…
Hydrides are key ingredients of interstellar chemistry since they are the initial products of chemical networks that lead to the formation of more complex molecules. The fundamental rotational transitions of light hydrides fall into the…
Molecular hydrogen has an important role in the early stages of star formation as well as in the production of many other molecules that have been detected in the interstellar medium. In this review we show that it is now possible to study…
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…
Much of the baryonic matter in the Universe is in the form of H2 which includes most of the gas in galactic and extragalactic interstellar clouds. Molecular hydrogen plays a significant role in establishing the thermal balance in many…
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…
Molecular gas is the key ingredient of the star formation cycle, and tracing its dependencies on other galaxy properties is essential for understanding galaxy evolution. In this work, we explore the relation between the different phases of…
Context: Hydrides of the most abundant heavier elements are fundamental molecules in cosmic chemistry. Some of them trace gas irradiated by UV or X-rays. Aims: We explore the abundances of major hydrides in W3 IRS5, a prototypical region of…
Molecular clouds are essentially made up of atomic and molecular hydrogen, which in spite of being the simplest molecule in the ISM plays a key role in the chemical evolution of molecular clouds. Since its formation time is very long, the…
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…
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,…
The interplay between dust and molecules is of fundamental importance in early galaxy evolution. First we present the prediction for the dust emission from forming galaxies. Then we discuss the observational strategy for molecules in early…
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…
Within the precise cosmological framework provided by the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter model and standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the chemical evolution of the pregalactic gas can now be followed with accuracy limited only by the uncertainties…
We present a model for the formation of large organic molecules in dark clouds. The molecules are produced in the high density gas-phase that exists immediately after ice mantles are explosively sublimated. The explosions are initiated by…
Studies of the molecular interstellar medium that fuels star formation and supermassive black hole growth in galaxies at cosmological distances have undergone tremendous progress over the past few years. Based on the detection of molecular…
Molecular hydrogen (H2) is the primary component of the reservoirs of cold, dense gas that fuel star formation in our galaxy. While the H2 abundance is ultimately regulated by physical processes operating on small scales in the interstellar…
Ices play a critical role during the evolution of interstellar clouds. Their presence is ubiquitous in the dense molecular medium and their impact is not only limited to chemistry. Species adsorbed onto dust grains also affect cloud…