Interstellar Archives

Ice compositions predicted by MAGICKAL for NIR38 for the models listed in Table 2. Left panel: Predicted water ice column densities. Wide right panel: Ice column density ratios with respect to water for the remaining species. Histograms are coloured and drawn as indicated in the upper right part of the panel. The visual extinction and dust temperatures assumed in the models are reported in the upper part of the panel. Black wide histograms report the observed Ice Age column density of water and ice column density ratios obtained by McClure et al. (2023). The 3σ error bars are also shown. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Modelling Methanol And Hydride Formation In The JWST Ice Age Era

by Keith CowingFebruary 18, 2025

(Abridged) JWST observations have measured the ice composition toward two highly-extinguished field stars in the Chamaeleon I cloud.

Synthetic ice spectra of a ‘simple’ ice composition

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Predicting the Detectability of Sulphur-bearing Molecules in the Solid Phase with Simulated Spectra of JWST Instruments

by Keith CowingFebruary 14, 2025February 14, 2025

To date, gas phase observations of sulphur in dense interstellar environments have only constrained the molecular carriers of ∼ 1 % of its predicted cosmic abundance. An additional ∼ 5 […]

NASA’s SPHEREx mission will survey the Milky Way galaxy looking for water ice and other key ingredients for life. In the search for these frozen compounds, the mission will focus on molecular clouds — collections of gas and dust in space — like this one imaged by the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

SPHEREx Space Telescope Will Seek Life’s Ingredients

by Keith CowingFebruary 13, 2025February 13, 2025

Where is all the water that may form oceans on distant planets and moons? The SPHEREx astrophysics mission will search the galaxy and take stock.

NASA has selected a science mission that will untangle the complexities of the interstellar medium, and map out large sections of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credits: NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage Team

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

PAH Carbon Accretion And Return To The Diffuse Interstellar Medium

by Keith CowingFebruary 11, 2025February 11, 2025

Two key questions of the chemistry of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium (ISM) are addressed: i) the way carbon is returned from PAHs to the interstellar gas […]

This artist’s concept visualizes a super-Neptune world orbiting a low-mass star near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists recently discovered such a system that may break the current record for fastest exoplanet system, traveling at least 1.2 million miles per hour, or 540 kilometers per second. NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

The Fastest Exoplanet System Yet Discovered

by Keith CowingFebruary 11, 2025February 11, 2025

Astronomers may have discovered a scrawny star bolting through the middle of our galaxy with a planet in tow. If confirmed, the pair sets a new record for the fastest-moving […]

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Fossils & Paleontology, Impact events, Interstellar, Press Release, Radiation, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Evidence Of An Ancient Cosmic Event Deep In Earth’s Oceans

by Keith CowingFebruary 11, 2025February 11, 2025

Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth’s geological history.

Integrated intensity of all observed formaldehyde lines toward the observed cores (colour scale) and visual extinction (black contours at 𝐴𝑉 = 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 mag). The top 𝐴𝑉 contours are at 𝐴𝑉 = 24 mag for core 16 and at 𝐴𝑉 = 20 mag for the other cores. The black star shows the position of Class 0 protostar IRAS 04166+2706 (Santiago-García et al. 2009); crosses show the Herschel/SPIRE dust emission peaks. The white circle at the bottom left of each map shows the 26′′ beam of the maps. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Correlation Between Formaldehyde and Methanol in Prestellar Cores

by Keith CowingFebruary 10, 2025

Formaldehyde is a key precursor in the formation routes of many complex organic molecules (COMs) in space. It is also an intermediate step in CO hydrogenation sequence that leads to […]

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Interstellar, Status Report

On the Abiotic Origin of Dimethyl Sulfide: Discovery of DMS in the Interstellar Medium

by Keith CowingFebruary 10, 2025February 10, 2025

Following the discovery of dimethyl sulfide (CH3SCH3, DMS) signatures in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we report the first detection of this organosulfur species in the interstellar medium, during the exploration of an […]

Directly-imaged exoplanets accrete on average ⪆50 M⊕ solids to enrich their atmospheres. Each violin shape shows the inferred accretion solid mass distribution (vertical axis) for a directly-imaged exoplanet. The median of the overall distribution is represented by the white point, and the 25% and 75% percentiles are represented by the thick line. An average value of 53.5 M⊕ is given as the horizontal dotted line. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Interstellar, Status Report

Early Accretion of Large Amounts of Solids for Directly-Imaged Exoplanets

by Keith CowingFebruary 10, 2025February 10, 2025

As the number of planetary mass objects (PMOs, ⪅13 MJupiter) at wider separation (⪆10 AU) grows, there is emerging evidence that they form differently from their higher-mass brown-dwarf (BD) counterparts.

ATLASGAL images at 870µm for all 12 sources with the 3σ NH3 contours overlaid. These contours show the masks used for the extraction of the carbon chain spectra as well as the aperture used to measure the flux from the ATLASGAL images for the calculation of H2 column density. In each of the sources, the NH3 and the dust continuum emission appear to be co-spatial. Note that the coordinates for these images are Galactic coordinates, while those in Figure 1 are in RA and DEC and thus the NH3 contours appear rotated here compared to Figure 1. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Interstellar, Status Report

The Young Ages of 70 μm-dark Clumps Inferred from Carbon Chain Chemistry

by Keith CowingFebruary 10, 2025

The physical conditions of the earliest environment of high-mass star formation are currently poorly understood. To that end, we present observations of the carbon chain molecules HC5N , CCS, and […]