The question of how life could have arisen from non-living molecular systems is not only fundamentally and philosophically interesting, but it requires us to closely examine the common features of life as we know it, and to imagine the possibilities for life as we do not know it. While much progress has been made elucidating possible chemical systems as candidates for early pre-biological...
The question of the formation of Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in ISM is a main issue in the field of prebiotic chemistry. More particularly, glycolaldehyde is an important species in this context, especially because it is the simplest sugar-related compound. Indeed, it is thought to be able to be converted into short dipeptides[1] or amino acids[2] and to ease the formation of more complex...
Over the past several years, observations of a variety of astronomical environments has led to the detection and characterization of new molecular species as well as to a better understanding of the physical and chemical conditions of these regions. Molecular material is now found in a host of Galactic and extragalactic environments and has been used as tracers of a variety of conditions...
