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Interstellar Molecular Formation Processes

  • Conference paper
Cosmic Chemistry

Part of the book series: Reviews in Modern Astronomy ((MOD.ASTRONOMY,volume 1))

Abstract

Visible radiation from galaxies is dominated by hot stellar material. However, the existence of cooler, interstellar phases can be inferred from the absorption and scattering of visible radiation as well as from emission at longer wavelengths. In particular, radioastronomical and, to a lesser extent, infrared observations have helped to uncover the existence of vast interstellar clouds of gaseous and particulate matter, with most of the matter (≈ 99%) in the gaseous form and ≈ 1% in the form of dust-like particles [1]. In the denser interstellar clouds, approximately eighty different molecular species and numerous isotopic variants have been discovered in the gas phase. These molecules range in complexity from diatomics to a thirteen-atom species, are mainly organic (carbon-containing) in nature, and comprise a variety of standard and bizarre species [1,2]. Detected by narrow line spectra, the gaseous molecules are exceedingly well characterized and their observation leads to a detailed knowledge of the chemical and physical state of the gas in dense interstellar clouds [2, 3]. For example, gas temperatures are in the range 10 – 70 K and total gas densities are on the order of 104 cm-3. Since dense clouds can range in extent up to ≈ 100 pc, cloud masses can range up to 106 solar masses. The material is slowly collapsing to form stars. Material in star-forming regions is typically denser and warmer than ambient material and can be studied separately from the ambient material either interferometrically or via differences in line profiles [4]. The particulate phase of dense clouds consists of small (0.1 μm) dust particles that contain refractory cores of material such as silicates covered mantles deposited from the gas phase [5].

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  1. Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    E. Herbst

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  1. E. Herbst
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Landessternwarte, Königstuhl, D-6900, Heidelberg 1, Fed. Rep. of Germany

    Gerhard Klare

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Herbst, E. (1988). Interstellar Molecular Formation Processes. In: Klare, G. (eds) Cosmic Chemistry. Reviews in Modern Astronomy, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74188-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74188-3_5

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