Interstellar molecules as a research area focuses on the detection, identification, and characterization of molecules in the interstellar medium (ISM), and on understanding their formation pathways, destruction processes, and astrochemical evolution. It integrates radio, millimeter, infrared, and UV spectroscopy with theoretical chemistry and reaction-kinetics modeling to constrain physical conditions in molecular clouds, diffuse clouds, and circumstellar envelopes. Research addresses gas-phase and grain-surface chemistry, isotopic fractionation, and the role of UV radiation, cosmic rays, and shocks in driving molecular complexity. This field informs models of star and planet formation, the chemical enrichment of galaxies, and the potential prebiotic inventory delivered to nascent planetary systems.
Astronomers have found a rare form of methanol, a type of alcohol, in a planet-forming disk, providing a critical step in understanding how life beyond Earth may form. This result reveals vital details about the chemical ...
Astrobiology
Jun 5, 2025
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Many people imagine the space between the stars as an empty, cold infinity. In reality, it is teeming with extraordinary molecules: More than 300 different types have already been discovered. For her Ph.D. thesis, chemist ...
Astronomy
Jun 2, 2025
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A new study published in Nature Astronomy, led by Dr. Jie Yu, from the Australian National University, reveals that stars in close binary systems—pairs of stars orbiting each other at close range—can exhibit unexpectedly ...
Astronomy
May 23, 2025
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For a while now, there has been a problematic mystery at the heart of the standard cosmological model. Although all observations support the expanding universe model, observations of the early period of the cosmos give a ...
Astronomy
May 16, 2025
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Using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array, astronomers have revealed for the first time the huge flow of gas near a massive star in the making that allows its rapid growth.
Astronomy
May 6, 2025
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Two materials physicists at The University of Sydney have found a possible explanation for the huge amount of molecular hydrogen in space. In their study published in the journal Communications Chemistry, Yuzhen Guo and David ...
There is a large diversity in the chemical composition of astronomical objects such as planets, comets, circumstellar envelopes, or galactic gas clouds. One great challenge in astrochemistry is to understand in detail how ...
Astrobiology
Apr 16, 2025
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31
Astrophysicists at the University of Colorado's JILA, National Institute of Science and Technology, have conducted an experiment to produce benzene the way theories have predicted it is produced in interstellar space and ...
The chemical element sulfur is essential for all lifeforms and is a building block of proteins and amino acids. By studying sulfur-based molecules in space, scientists are working to understand the chemical processes that ...
Astrobiology
Mar 20, 2025
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50
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.
Astronomy
Feb 13, 2025
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