Recently in the Astrochemistry Category

Glycoaldehyde, ethylene glycol, and methyl formate are complex organic molecules that have been observed in dark molecular clouds.

A team of astronomers of Leiden University (the Netherlands) and the University of Texas (Austin, United States) has discovered a new way to map distant galaxies.

Phosphorus, present in our DNA and cell membranes, is an essential element for life as we know it. But how it arrived on the early Earth is something of a mystery.

A new ro-vibrational line list for the ground electronic state of the main isotopologue of acetylene, 12C2H2, is computed as part of the ExoMol project.

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) were likely major sources of extraterrestrial organics to the early Earth. However, IDPs experience heating to > 500 °C for up to several seconds during atmospheric entry.

The N2 and CO-rich and water-depleted comet C/2016 R2 (Pan-STARRS) (hereafter `C/2016 R2') is a unique comet for detailed spectroscopic analysis.

Aim: In the past, observations of protostellar shocks have been able to set constraints on the formation route of formamide (NH2CHO), exploiting its observed spatial distribution and comparison with astrochemical model predictions.

Context. While radiative cooling of interstellar grains is a well-known process, little detail is known about the cooling of grains with an icy mantle that contains volatile adsorbed molecules.

Aims. Due to the limitations of current computational technology, the fragmentation and isomerization products of vibrationally-excited polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules and their derivatives are poorly studied.

We are on the verge of characterizing the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zones of M dwarf stars.