Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Regions of the Magellanic Clouds
Reviewartikel, 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.
molecular abundances
star formation
Magellanic Clouds
astrochemistry
complex organic molecules
Författare
Marta Sewiło
University of Maryland
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
S.B. Charnley
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
P. Schilke
Universität zu Köln
V. Taquet
Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
Joana M. Oliveira
Keele University
Takashi Shimonishi
Tohoku University
Eva Wirström
Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium
R. Indebetouw
University of Virginia
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Jacob L. Ward
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg
J. T. van Loon
Keele University
Jennifer Wiseman
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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-Gesellschaft
Yasuo Fukui
Nagoya University
Roya Hamedani Golshan
Universität zu Köln
ACS Earth and Space Chemistry
24723452 (eISSN)
Vol. 3 10 2088-2109Interstellar Chemistry with Herschel
Rymdstyrelsen (98/14), 2015-01-01 -- 2016-12-31.
Rymdstyrelsen (158/12), 2013-01-01 -- 2014-12-31.
Svensk forskningsstöd för SWI (Submillimetre Wave Instrument)
Rymdstyrelsen (246/16), 2017-01-01 -- 2019-12-31.
Ämneskategorier
Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi
Atom- och molekylfysik och optik
Geokemi
Infrastruktur
Onsala rymdobservatorium
DOI
10.1021/acsearthspacechem.9b00065