Speaker
Description
Pre-stellar cores represent the initial conditions of Solar-system formation. In the past, these gravitationally collapsing condensations were believed to present a simple chemistry characterised by severe freezing-out of carbon-bearing species in their densest and coldest, innermost regions. However, thanks to the advent of higher-sensitivity instrumentation, it has become clear that pre-stellar cores show a higher level of chemical complexity as revealed by the detection of a wide variety of complex organic molecules in these objects. In this talk, I will present our recent observational work on the distribution of complex organic molecules in pre-stellar cores, and I will put them in context with respect to new theories of complex organics formation under extreme cold conditions.
