Interstellar chemistry tagged posts

Webb makes First Detection of Crucial Carbon Molecule

These Webb images show a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. The largest image, on the left, is from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument. At upper right, the telescope is focused on a smaller area using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). At the very center of the MIRI area is a young star system with a protoplanetary disk named d203-506. The pullout at the bottom right displays a combined NIRCam and MIRI image of this young system.
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), and the PDRs4All ERS Team

A team of international scientists has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time...

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Baby, it’s cold outside: Understanding Conditions for Star Formation

Schematic illustration showing chemical desorption is at work in interstellar molecular clouds. Molecules are released from an ice dust surface using excess energy from a chemical reaction. Credit: Hokkaido University

Schematic illustration showing chemical desorption is at work in interstellar molecular clouds. Molecules are released from an ice dust surface using excess energy from a chemical reaction. Credit: Hokkaido University

Researchers demonstrate how a gas escapes ice at an extremely cold temperature, providing insight about how stars form in interstellar clouds. The mechanism by which hydrogen sulphide is released as gas in interstellar molecular clouds is described by scientists in Japan and Germany. Chemical desorption, is more efficient than previously believed, and this has implications for our understanding of star formation in molecular clouds.

Molecular clouds are rare, but are important parts of the galaxy where molecules form and evolve...

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