There is growing evidence that the properties of the molecular gas in the nuclei of starburst galaxies and in AGN may be very different from those seen in Galactic star forming regions and that a high kinetic temperature in the molecular gas may lead to a non-standard initial mass function in the next generation of stars. Unfortunately, among the fundamental parameters derived from molecular li...

Infrared observations, combined with realistic laboratory simulations, have revolutionized our understanding of interstellar ice and dust, the building blocks of comets. Ices in molecular clouds are dominated by the very simple molecules H2O, CH3OH, NH3, CO, CO2, and probably H2CO and H2. More complex species including nitriles, ketones, and esters are also present, but at lower concentrations....

We discuss the effects of an enhanced interstellar radiation field (ISRF) on the observables of protostellar cores in the Orion cloud region. Dust radiative transfer is used to constrain the envelope physical structure by reproducing SCUBA 850 μm emission. Previously reported 13CO, C17O and H2CO line observations are reproduced through detailed Monte Carlo line radiative transfer models. It is ...

We report the first survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using standalone Atacama Compact Array (ACA) observations Large Millimeter/Submillimeter (ALMA) toward comet C/2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS) carried out on UT 2017 April 11 and 15, shortly after its 4 outburst. These measurements HCN, CS, CH3OH, H2CO, HNC (along with continuum dust) probed inner coma ER61, revealing asymmetric out...

We report the effects of collision energy (Ecol) and five different H2CO+ vibrational modes on the reaction of H2CO+ with C2D4 over the center-of-mass E(col) range from 0.1 to 2.1 eV. Properties of various complexes and transition states were also examined computationally. Seven product channels are observed. Charge transfer (CT) has the largest cross section over the entire energy range, subst...