Astrochemistry

Observations of Non Complex Organic Molecules in the Gas Phase of the Interstellar Medium

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
astro-ph.GA
June 6, 2025
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Observations of Non Complex Organic Molecules in the Gas Phase of the Interstellar Medium
Left: Map of the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC) complex obtained with the IRAM 30m telescope in CO 2–1. The data are taken from Berné et al. [18]. We indicate the OMC-1 and OMC-2 clouds, and other distinctive objects within the nebula. The angular resolution of the map is ∼ 10.7 ′′ Right: zoom of 1′ square in cloud OMC-2 as mapped with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in the 3 mm continuum emission (Neri et al., in prep.). The mapped region has a size of 70′′, and an angular resolution of ∼ 1.3 ′′. The stars indicate the far-infrared sources FIR3, FIR4, and FIR5 located in the region, and the ellipse in the bottom-left corner is the synthesised beam. — astro-ph.GA

The field of astrochemistry has seen major advances triggered by the completion of new powerful radio telescopes, with gains in sensitivity of receivers and in bandwidth.

To date, about 330 molecular species are detected, in interstellar clouds, circumstellar shells and even extragalactic sources. The first interstellar molecules were first discovered through their electronic transitions in the visual and near UV regions of the spectra in the 1930s. Then the discovery of (pure) rotational transitions of interstellar molecules dates back to the late 1960s. The improvement of detectors and the increase in telescope sizes really opened up the submillimeter sky.

The radio and submillimeter ranges cover the lowest rotational lines of molecular species. The bigger the molecule, the more spectral lines at different frequencies it produces, with weaker line intensities. Over the past 30 years, we have discovered that we live in a molecular universe, where molecules are abundant and widespread, probing the structure and evolution of galaxies, as well as the temperature and density of the observed medium, opening a new field called astrochemistry. The progress has been dramatic, since the discovery of the first molecules about 100 years ago.

We present in this review, the detection techniques that led to the discovery of the simple molecules in the gas phase and the methodology that lead to the abundances determinations and the comparison with chemical modelling.

Charlotte Vastel, Francesco Fontani

Comments: Accepted in Elsevier Handbook of Astrochemistry (2025)
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2506.02641 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2506.02641v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.02641
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Submission history
From: Charlotte Vastel
[v1] Tue, 3 Jun 2025 08:56:59 UTC (4,051 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02641
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry,

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