Interstellar molecule · CO
Carbon Monoxide
After molecular hydrogen, the most abundant molecule in space — and, because hydrogen is hard to see directly in cold gas, the workhorse tracer astronomers use to map molecular clouds and measure how much gas is available to form stars.
Highlights
- ›The tracer that maps the molecular universe
Environments, telescopes & molecules
Across astrochemistry
Knowledge connections
- Associated withALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array)
- Associated withMolecular Clouds
- Associated withRadio
- Associated withGas-Phase Chemistry
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- ESOEuropean Southern Observatory
Southern-hemisphere observatory data and imagery (VLT, ALMA partner).