NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Chemistry and Evolution of Interstellar CloudsIn this chapter we describe how elements have been and are still being formed in the galaxy and how they are transformed into the reservoir of materials present at the time of formation of our protosolar nebula. We discuss the global cycle of matter, beginning at its formation site in stars, where it is ejected through winds and explosions into the diffuse interstellar medium. In the next stage of the global cycle occurs in cold, dense molecular clouds, where the complexity of molecules and ices increases relative to the diffuse ISM.. When a protostar forms in a dense core within a molecular cloud, it heats the surrounding infalling matter warms and releases molecules from the solid phase into the gas phase in a warm, dense core, sponsoring a rich gas-phase chemistry. Some material from the cold and warm regions within molecular clouds probably survives as interstellar matter in the protostellar disk. For the diffuse ISM, for cold, dense clouds, and for dense-warm cores, the physio-chemical processes that occur within the gas and solid phases are discussed in detail.
Document ID
20060015634
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Wooden, D. H.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Charnley, S. B.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Ehrenfreund, P.
(Leiden Univ. Netherlands)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available