Astrochemical process
Grain-Surface Chemistry
Chemistry that happens on the icy mantles of dust grains, where atoms and molecules land, wander, and meet. It makes molecules the gas phase cannot — water and methanol among them — and is the source of much of space's complex organic chemistry.
Highlights
- ›Where the gas phase fails, the ice succeeds
Environments, telescopes & molecules
Across astrochemistry
Knowledge connections
- Associated withInterstellar Dust
- Associated withMethanol
- Associated withInterstellar Dust
- Associated withMethanol
- Associated withWater
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.