Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Regions of the Magellanic Clouds
Review article, 2019
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC), gas-rich dwarf companions of the Milky Way, are the nearest laboratories for detailed studies on the formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs) under metal-poor conditions. To date, only methanol, methyl formate, and dimethyl ether have been detected in these galaxies-all three toward two hot cores in the N113 star-forming region in the LMC, the only extragalactic sources exhibiting complex hot-core chemistry. We describe a small and diverse sample of the LMC and SMC sources associated with COMs or hot-core chemistry, and compare the observations to theoretical model predictions. Theoretical models accounting for the physical conditions and metallicity of hot molecular cores in the Magellanic Clouds have been able to broadly account for the existing observations, but they fail to reproduce the dimethyl ether abundance by more than an order of magnitude. We discuss future prospects for research in the field of complex chemistry in the low-metallicity environment. The detection of COMs in the Magellanic Clouds has important implications for astrobiology. The metallicity of the Magellanic Clouds is similar to that of galaxies in the earlier epochs of the universe; thus, the presence of COMs in the LMC and SMC indicates that a similar prebiotic chemistry leading to the emergence of life, as it happened on Earth, is possible in low-metallicity systems in the earlier universe.
complex organic molecules
molecular abundances
astrochemistry
Magellanic Clouds
star formation
Author
Marta Sewiło
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
University of Maryland
S.B. Charnley
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
P. Schilke
University of Cologne
V. Taquet
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
Joana M. Oliveira
Keele University
Takashi Shimonishi
Tohoku University
Eva Wirström
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
R. Indebetouw
University of Virginia
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Jacob L. Ward
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg
J. T. van Loon
Keele University
Jennifer Wiseman
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
S. Zahorecz
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Osaka Prefecture University
Toshikazu Onishi
Osaka Prefecture University
Akiko Kawamura
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
C. H.Rosie Chen
Max Planck Society
Yasuo Fukui
Nagoya University
Roya Hamedani Golshan
University of Cologne
ACS Earth and Space Chemistry
24723452 (eISSN)
Vol. 3 10 2088-2109Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Geochemistry
Infrastructure
Onsala Space Observatory
DOI
10.1021/acsearthspacechem.9b00065