ALMA Archives

Schematic summary of COM-poor hot cores in low-metallicity environments. In the LMC, COM-poor hot cores are currently found only outside the bar region (i.e., lower metallicity, Z), where all of them have high bolometric luminosity (Lbol) and are associated with high star-formation (SF) activity (S24µm,10pc indicates 24 µm surface brightness averaged over a 10 pc radius around each hot core). In the even lower-metallicity SMC, both known hot cores are COM-poor despite having only moderate luminosity and star-formation activity. In contrast, the two known hot cores in the outer Galaxy are COM-rich despite the low metallicity, highlighting that low metallicity alone does not necessarily result in COM-poor chemistry. -- astro-ph.GA

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

MAGellanic Outflow And Chemistry Survey (MAGOS): Hot Cores In The LMC

by Keith CowingDecember 25, 2025December 25, 2025

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) provides a key laboratory for exploring the diversity of star formation and interstellar chemistry under subsolar metallicity conditions.

Temporal variation of the abundances (left panels) and 12C/13C ratios (middle and right panels) of selected COMs in the gas phase (solid lines) and in the bulk (surface + mantle) ice (dash-dotted lines) during the static phase (upper panels) and the collapse phase (lower panels). The middle panels show 12C/13C ratios for H13COOCH3, HOCH2 13CHO, 13CH3CHO, and 13CH3CH2OH, while the right panels show those for HCOO13CH3, HO13CH2CHO, CH3 13CHO, and CH3 13CH2OH. The vertical axis is shared between the middle and right panels, and the horizontal black dashed line represents the elemental 12C/13C ratio. -- astro-ph.GA

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

Isotopomer-Specific Carbon Isotope Ratio of Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Cores

by Keith CowingDecember 14, 2025December 14, 2025

Recent high-resolution and sensitivity ALMA observations have unveiled the carbon isotope ratios (12C/13C) of Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in a low-mass protostellar source.

A zoomed-in view of NGC1566, one of the 66 galaxies. Left: continuum-subtracted intensity image of the galaxy in the F770W MIRI band. The 2 σ CO intensity contours from PHANGS-ALMA are represented in black. Right: The PAH cloud structures identified by SCIMES are color-coded by their F770W intensities. The green, blue, and red contours indicate the spiral arm, bar, and central region masks, respectively. The interarm region, in this case, consists of the remaining clouds that are not enclosed by the contours. The number of PAH clouds identified in this galaxy is represented in the bottom right. The color bar on top of the image shows the 7.7µm intensity range of the identified clouds. -- astro-ph.GA

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

PHANGS-JWST: The Largest Extragalactic Molecular Cloud Catalog Traced By Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission

by Keith CowingDecember 8, 2025December 8, 2025

High-resolution JWST images of nearby spiral galaxies reveal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission structures that trace molecular gas, including CO-dark regions.

ALMA Band 5 images of the HL Tau disk and the 321 GHz H2O line.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Zooming Into The Water Snowline: High Resolution Water Observations of the HL Tau disk

by Keith CowingNovember 25, 2025November 25, 2025

Water is one of the central molecules for the formation and habitability of planets. In particular, the region where water freezes-out, the water snowline, could be a favorable location to […]

Integrated intensity maps of the detected transitions. A continuum image highlighting the rings and gaps is displayed at the bottom right. The synthesised beam is indicated at the bottom left of each panel.-- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Unveiling the Chemical Complexity and C/O Ratio of the HD 163296 Protoplanetary Disk: Constraints from Multi-line ALMA Observations of Organics, Nitriles, Sulfur-bearing, and Deuterated Molecules

by Keith CowingNovember 18, 2025November 18, 2025

The physical and chemical conditions within a protoplanetary disk play a crucial role in determining its chemical composition, which is subsequently inherited by any forming planets.

Derived CS rotational temperatures (top) and column densities (bottom) for our disk sample, sorted from left to right by column density. The median values are shown by the dashed orange lines and the shaded regions indicate the 16th-84th percentiles. Several points have uncertainties smaller than the markers. The values for the TW Hya and HD 163296 disks are taken from R. Teague et al. (2018) and C. J. Law et al. (2025), respectively. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Interstellar, Press Release

A Submillimeter Survey Of CS Excitation In Protoplanetary Disks: Evidence Of X-ray-Driven Sulfur Chemistry

by Keith CowingNovember 16, 2025November 15, 2025

The sulfur chemistry in protoplanetary disks influences the properties of nascent planets, including potential habitability.

A figure illustrating the sensitivity of a carbon rich stellar outflow with a MCMC sampler varying reaction rates of the entire network. -- astro-ph.GA

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Carbox: An End-to-end Differentiable Astrochemical Simulation Framework

by Keith CowingNovember 14, 2025November 14, 2025

Since the first observations of interstellar molecules, astrochemical simulations have been employed to model and understand its formation and destruction pathways.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Status Report

The First Detection of Molecular Activity in the Largest Known Oort Cloud Comet: ALMA Imaging of C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) at 16.6 au from the Sun

by Keith CowingOctober 24, 2025October 22, 2025

We report observations of comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) carried out on UT 2024 March 8 and 17 at a heliocentric distance (rH) of 16.6 au using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter […]

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of heavy water molecules (H2O, HDO, and D2O) as they have been observed in giant molecular clouds, a planet forming-disk, and comets—before they eventually may have made their way to Earth. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/P. Vosteen, B. Saxton

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

First-ever Detection Of Heavy Water In A Planet-forming Disk

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2025October 15, 2025

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made a first-ever detection of doubly deuterated water (D2O, or “heavy water”) in a planet-forming disk around V883 Ori, a young […]

Multi-frequency imaging of PDS 70 with a zoom on the forming protoplanet PDS 70c. From left to right are the ALMA bands 4, 7, and 9. PDS70c shines in Bands 4 and 7, but not in Band 9, which can be attributed to ionized gas emission. Credit: O. Domínguez et al. – N. Lira – ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release

ALMA Pinpoints The Radio Signature Of Planetary Growth

by Keith CowingOctober 3, 2025October 3, 2025

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have obtained an unprecedented multi-frequency view of a forming planet in the nearby star system PDS 70. The new study, led by […]

ALMA

MAGellanic Outflow And Chemistry Survey (MAGOS): Hot Cores In The LMC

Isotopomer-Specific Carbon Isotope Ratio of Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Cores

PHANGS-JWST: The Largest Extragalactic Molecular Cloud Catalog Traced By Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission

Zooming Into The Water Snowline: High Resolution Water Observations of the HL Tau disk

Unveiling the Chemical Complexity and C/O Ratio of the HD 163296 Protoplanetary Disk: Constraints from Multi-line ALMA Observations of Organics, Nitriles, Sulfur-bearing, and Deuterated Molecules

A Submillimeter Survey Of CS Excitation In Protoplanetary Disks: Evidence Of X-ray-Driven Sulfur Chemistry

Carbox: An End-to-end Differentiable Astrochemical Simulation Framework

The First Detection of Molecular Activity in the Largest Known Oort Cloud Comet: ALMA Imaging of C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) at 16.6 au from the Sun

First-ever Detection Of Heavy Water In A Planet-forming Disk

ALMA Pinpoints The Radio Signature Of Planetary Growth

ExoPAG 35 – Early Career Talks Invitation

Missed Detections and False Alarms in a CNN Technosignature Detector on Breakthrough Listen Data

Ancient Clays Near The Hellas Basin On Mars

A Hydrogen Atmosphere Could Keep Exomoons Habitable For Billions Of Years

Ring Pattern Reveal The Mechanism By Which Unseen Planets And Dust Particles Gather On Their Own