complex organic molecules Archives

Identified COMs towards the disk of V883 Ori. The horizontal dotted line in gray represents the noise level in the data (1σ), the black line represents the data, and different colors represent the best fit of the model of different species. --astro-ph.GA

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

A Deep Search For Complex Organic Molecules Toward The Protoplanetary Disk Of V883 Ori

by Keith CowingApril 9, 2025September 18, 2025

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in the form of prebiotic molecules are potentially building blocks of life.

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 […]

Distribution of tracer particles by final density and formation density of gas-phase CH3OH with fCH3OH = 0.02, for a threshold abundance of 10−10. Dashed white lines show the 100 and 500-tracer contours from Figure 6 -- astro-ph.SR

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

NEATH IV: An Early Onset of Complex Organic Chemistry in Molecular Clouds

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025

Complex organic molecules (COMs) are widely detected in protostellar and protoplanetary systems, where they are thought to have been inherited in large part from earlier evolutionary phases.

ALMA observations of Complex Organic Molecules -- ALMA

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

Young Star B335 Offers A Natural Laboratory for Astrochemistry

by Keith CowingDecember 29, 2024December 28, 2024

Scientists have taken an unprecedented step forward in understanding the chemical processes occurring as new stars form, thanks to observations of the variable protostar B335, a very young forming star […]

Perseus Molecular Cloud H2 column density map from Herschel (Sadavoy et al. 2012; Pezzuto et al. 2012; Sadavoy et al. 2014). Overplotted are the numbered starless and prestellar cores observed (pink, gold and orange points) and those underlined in gold have had successful ARO 12m CH3CHO detections at the 𝜎𝑇mb = 6 mK level and were followed up with the Yebes 40m telescope. Cores 67 and 658 are italicized and labeled in blue, denoting these are the cores that were followed up with additional ARO 12m observations probing down to 𝜎𝑇mb = 2.5 mK. The remaining starless and prestellar cores are in magenta. In all cores CH3OH has been detected. For comparison, in green are the locations of the 27 protostars from the PEACHES sample with CH3OH detections (see their Table 5 in Yang et al. 2021). The apparent overlap in sources is a projection effect, as seen from the zoom-in insert panels for regions IC348 and NGC1333. The size of the starless and prestellar core circles are at a FWHM of 62 arcsec. -- astro-ph.SR

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

Survey of Complex Organic Molecules in Starless and Prestellar Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

by Keith CowingAugust 22, 2024August 22, 2024

Cold (∼10 K) and dense (∼105 cm−3) cores of gas and dust within molecular clouds, known as starless and dynamically evolved prestellar cores, are the birthplaces of low-mass (M ≤ […]

H2 number density (left) and gas temperature (right) in the adopted physical structure for the HOPS-370 disk based on modeling by Tobin et al. (2020a). The contours in the left panel start at 5 × 108 cm−3 (white) and increase by 1 dex per contour. The (vertically isothermal) contours in the right-hand panel show the gas temperature at different radii in the disk. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Observations Of Low-mass Protostellar Systems Show Evidence Of Rich Complex Organic Chemistry.

by Keith CowingAugust 11, 2024August 10, 2024

Observations of low-mass protostellar systems show evidence of rich complex organic chemistry. Their low luminosity, however, makes determining abundance distributions of complex organic molecules (COMs) within the water snowline challenging.

The example of trajectories of particles which are initially located in the midplane at 80 au from the central star. The trajectories were tracked for 106 yr. The trajectories of the particles with the size of 1, 10, 100, and 1000 𝜇m are shown in yellow, red, blue, and green, respectively. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Chemical Evolution of Complex Organic Molecules in Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks: Effect of stochastic UV irradiation

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2024June 26, 2024

We investigate the chemical evolution of complex organic molecules (COMs) in turbulent disks using gas-ice chemical reaction network simulations.

Temporal variation of the molecular abundances and 12C/13C ratios for gaseous species during the static phase in the model with the direct C-atom addition reactions (solid lines) and the base model (dashed lines). The horizontal black dashed line represents the average 12C/13C ratio of local ISM. -- astro-ph.SR

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Status Report

Carbon Isotope Fractionation of Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Cores

by Keith CowingJune 6, 2024September 18, 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. To understand the 12C/13C ratios of COMs, […]

Schematic of the VENUS setup viewed from above, showing a multi-beam stage with five beam lines (Left, Top, Central, Bottom, and Right beams) for material injection, symmetrically distributed around the central port. The CB and BB are vertically aligned below the TB. Each beam is equipped with a set of diaphragms to collimate the particle stream into the vacuum chambers CH1 and CH2 at pressures of 10−8 hPa and 10−9 hPa, respectively. The main chamber (10−10 hPa) houses a gold-plated target for growing the ice samples. Gas-phase species are monitored by a QMS that is placed in front of the sample during TPD analysis. A cryocooler and thermal shield regulate the system’s temperature. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Status Report

Comprehensive Laboratory Constraints On Thermal Desorption Of Interstellar Ice Analogues

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2024April 3, 2024

To explain grain growth and destruction in warm media, ice mantle formation and sublimation in cold media, and gas line emission spectroscopy, astrochemical models must mimic the gas–solid abundance ratio. […]

Integrated intensity maps of a selected transition for each O-bearing COM. The upper right panel in each figure shows the spectra toward the center and the filled regions indicate the integration ranges for the zero-order moment maps, which is 3.5 − 10.7 km s−1 , except for CH3OH with 3.5 − 12.0 km s−1 , for the zero-order moment maps. The blue contours in the top-left panel represent the ALMA 1.3 mm continuum emission (Tobin et al. 2018) with levels of [3, 5, 7, 10, 30, 70]-𝜎. The horizontal grey line in the top left panel shows the PV cut used in Figure 7. The blue pixel at the top right panel indicate the pixel that is used to extract the spectra in this work. -- astro-ph.GA

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

PRODIGE Envelope To Disk with NOEMA III. The Origin Of Complex Organic Molecule Emission In SVS13A

by Keith CowingMarch 26, 2024March 26, 2024

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) have been found toward low-mass protostars but the origins of the COM emission are still unclear.

complex organic molecules

A Deep Search For Complex Organic Molecules Toward The Protoplanetary Disk Of V883 Ori

Correlation Between Formaldehyde and Methanol in Prestellar Cores

NEATH IV: An Early Onset of Complex Organic Chemistry in Molecular Clouds

Young Star B335 Offers A Natural Laboratory for Astrochemistry

Survey of Complex Organic Molecules in Starless and Prestellar Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

Observations Of Low-mass Protostellar Systems Show Evidence Of Rich Complex Organic Chemistry.

Chemical Evolution of Complex Organic Molecules in Turbulent Protoplanetary Disks: Effect of stochastic UV irradiation

Carbon Isotope Fractionation of Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Cores

Comprehensive Laboratory Constraints On Thermal Desorption Of Interstellar Ice Analogues

PRODIGE Envelope To Disk with NOEMA III. The Origin Of Complex Organic Molecule Emission In SVS13A

The Role Of Minerals In Prebiotic Evolution: Implications For Identifying Worlds With The Potential For Life’s Origin

Gen-EBM: An Energy Balance Model For Terrestrial Planets. Climate Multistability From Snowball To Post-runaway Greenhouse Climates

Astrometric Planet Search Around Southern Ultracool Dwarfs: V. Discovery Of The Exoplanet Candidate PALTA-1 b

Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Active Asteroid (101955) Bennu

SOPHIE And TESS Characterization Of Fourteen TESS Objects Of Interest: Nine Planetary Systems And Five Low-mass Stellar Companions