[astro-ph.GA] Numerous attempts to detect glycine, a simple amino acid and a key building block of proteins in all life on Earth, in the interstellar medium have so far been […]
astro-ph.GA
![Binding energies of CO, CO2 and NH3 on pristine and cavity-containing ice clusters consisting of 100 and 97 H2O molecules, respectively. The error bars represent the spread in adsorption energies across the three clusters. Dispersion energy as fraction of the total binding energy per species, site and functional. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/How-Small.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
How Small is Large Enough? Determining Minimal Cluster Sizes for Molecule Adsorption on Interstellar Amorphous Ice
[astro-ph.GA] Binding energies of molecules on ice mantles are important to understand the evolution of molecular complexity in molecular clouds.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Interstellar Aromatic Infrared Bands: IR Absorption Spectroscopy Of The Lowest Triplet State Of Naphthalene
[astro-ph.GA] The aromatic infrared bands (AIBs), emission features observed ubiquitously across a wide variety of interstellar objects, are commonly attributed to radiative cooling of highly-excited ground-state vibrational levels of polycyclic […]
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Gaia DR3 Limits on Stellar Engine Technosignatures in Nearby Stars
[astro-ph.GA] An operating stellar engine that transfers momentum to its host star could produce an approximately persistent transverse acceleration during the Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) observing epoch.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Catalytic Formation of H2 On Carbonaceous Dust Grains – Implications For Interstellar Observations
[astro-ph.GA] We use kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations to study molecular hydrogen formation on carbonaceous dust grain surfaces, validated against recent laboratory measurements of H2 formation on coronene films at […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
The Galactic Centre G+0.633-0.0604 Molecular Cloud: A New Gold Mine for Astrochemistry
[astro-ph.GA] Astrochemistry is living a golden age, with more than a quarter of the ~350 molecules in the current interstellar census having been detected over the last three years. One […]
![Observed spectra compared to laboratory data for CO (left), 13CO2 (middle), and H2O (right) ices on carbonaceous dust analogs. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Molecule-specific.png?resize=1200%2C606&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Molecule-specific Diffusion And Desorption Of Interstellar Ices On Carbonaceous Dust
[astro-ph.GA] Interstellar ices form on dust grains in the coldest regions of molecular clouds and preserve key volatile reservoirs that could be incorporated into protoplanetary disks during star and planet […]
Posted inAstrochemistry
First Detection Of C2H+ In The Interstellar Medium
[astro-ph.GA] Despite the detection of nearly 350 molecules in the interstellar medium, almost half of which are carbon chains, the pathways that build molecular complexity remain poorly understood.
Posted inAstrochemistry
Photochemistry Of Interstellar Ice Forming Complex Organic Molecules
[astro-ph.GA] Astrochemistry is a well-established multidisciplinary field devoted to study molecules in space. While most astrochemists are oriented to observe molecules in the gas phase and reproduce their abundances by […]
![Herschel H2 column density map (Sadavoy et al. 2012) of Perseus starless and prestellar cores. Labeled in magenta are the locations and names of the 15 starless and prestellar cores analyzed. The star-forming regions within Perseus are denoted in black.-- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Inventories.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Inventories of Rich Carbon-Chain Chemistry in Prestellar and Starless Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
[astro-ph.GA] Carbon-chain molecules serve as an important reservoir of reactive organic matter that will eventually be incorporated into protoplanetary disks, planets, and cometary material. Prestellar and starless cores are composed […]