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Interstellar medium is the space between the stars. The interstellar medium is composed of gas (predominantly hydrogen and helium) and dust. Such interstellar matter makes up approximately 15% of the visible matter in our galaxy.
Carbon atoms are one of the most abundant chemical species in the earliest stages of star formation. They had been thought to be immobile on the surface of interstellar ice, but laboratory experiments now show that a significant fraction of carbon atoms can move on the surface and react — changing our view of interstellar organic chemistry.
Galaxies that formed during the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang have physical properties that deviate from later galaxies, due to substantial gas infall from the intergalactic medium that dilutes the observed chemical enrichment.
The interstellar chemistry of carbon atoms is crucial to chemical complexity in the Universe. This experimental work suggests that C-atom reactions on interstellar ice surfaces contribute to C–C bond formation and chemical evolution towards complex organic species.
JWST observations of CH3+ in a protoplanetary disk in the Orion star-forming region are reported showing that gas-phase organic chemistry in the interstellar medium is activated by ultraviolet irradiation and the methyl cation.
The authors report observational evidence that, within interstellar gas, there are temperature inhomogeneities affecting only highly ionized gas and causing the abundance discrepancy problem, and provide new empirical relations for estimation of temperature and metallicity.
The authors report observations of recently formed dust and molecular gas in the atmosphere of IRC+10°216 and interpret HCN, SiS and SiC2 lines as large convective cells in the photosphere, as seen in Betelgeuse.
A method for measuring oxygen abundances using optical and far-infrared emission lines provides absolute metallicities of the interstellar gas in Markarian 71 and could be applied across cosmic history.
James Stone started developing Athena in the mid-2000s, building on several years’ work on numerical methods for compressible magnetohydrodynamics in shocks. A couple of incarnations later, AthenaK is ready to face the exascale computing future.
Carbon atoms are one of the most abundant chemical species in the earliest stages of star formation. They had been thought to be immobile on the surface of interstellar ice, but laboratory experiments now show that a significant fraction of carbon atoms can move on the surface and react — changing our view of interstellar organic chemistry.
Observations of scattered X-rays from the Central Molecular Zone suggest that Sagittarius A* was much more active in the past, and moreover provide an approximate map of the location of the illuminated molecular clouds in the Galactic Centre.
Hydroxylamine is a molecule of prebiotic interest, but its estimated abundance in space is orders of magnitude greater than what we have observed. To answer this discrepancy, quantum chemical calculations are used to investigate its formation and destruction pathways.
A potential observation of low-energy antihelium-3 nuclei would have profound impacts on our understanding of the Galaxy. Experiments at particle colliders help us understand how cosmic antimatter travels over long distances before reaching Earth.
