The Molecules of Space

The molecular building blocks from which amino acids can form — some detected in space and in the ices of comets, and amino acids themselves found in meteorites such as Murchison. They link the chemistry of the interstellar medium to the origin of life.

One of the first polyatomic molecules found in space, and a sensitive thermometer of dense cloud cores: the relative strengths of its radio lines reveal the temperature of the cold gas about to collapse into stars.

A common component of the icy mantles that coat interstellar dust grains, detected by the infrared absorption its ice produces against background starlight. Its abundance in ices records the chemistry and radiation history of a cloud.

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.

A simple nitrogen-bearing molecule widespread in space and central to prebiotic chemistry — many proposed routes to the building blocks of life pass through hydrogen cyanide and its relatives.

A key complex organic molecule that forms not in the gas but on the icy surfaces of dust grains, by the step-by-step addition of hydrogen to frozen carbon monoxide. It is a stepping stone toward the larger organic molecules found around young stars.

Large, flat molecules of linked carbon rings that pervade the galaxy, glowing in a distinctive set of infrared bands and locking up a large share of interstellar carbon. The James Webb Space Telescope maps their emission across galaxies.

One of the most abundant molecules in the universe, present as gas, as ice frozen onto dust grains, and in the disks where planets form. Tracing where water is inherited from the interstellar medium versus made in disks is central to understanding how worlds get their oceans.