Search

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are of great astrochemical and astrobiological interest due to their potential to form prebiotic molecules. We analyse the 7.7 and 8.6 ${\mu}$m PAH bands in 126 predominantly starburst-dominated galaxies extracted from the Spitzer/IRS ATLAS project. Based on the peak positions of these bands, we classify them into the different A, B, and C Peeters' classes, which allows us to address the potential characteristics of the PAH emitting population. We compare this analysis with previous work focused on the 6.2 ${\mu}$m PAH band for the same sample. For the first time in the literature, this statistical analysis is performed on a sample of galaxies. In our sample, the 7.7 ${\mu}$m complex is equally distributed in A and B object's class while the 8.6 ${\mu}$m band presents more B class sources. Moreover, 39 per cent of the galaxies were distributed into A class objects for both 6.2 and 7.7 ${\mu}$m bands and only 18 per cent received the same A classification for the three bands. The "A A A" galaxies presented higher temperatures and less dust in their interstellar medium. Considering the redshift range covered by our sample, the distribution of the three bands into the different Peeters' classes reveals a potential cosmological evolution in the molecular nature of the PAHs that dominate the interstellar medium in these galaxies, where B class objects seem to be more frequent at higher redshifts and, therefore, further studies have to be addressed., Comment: Accepted to MNRAS

This article presents the results of a study concerning interstellar molecules which are useful for the bookkeeping of the organic content of the universe and for providing a glimpse into prebiotic conditions on Earth and in other environments in the universe. We explored production channels for astrobiological relevant nitrogen-bearing cyclic molecules (N-heterocycles), e. g. pyrrole and pyridine. The present simulations demonstrate how the exploration of a few possible routes of production of N-heterocycles resulted in significant abundances for these species. One particularly efficient class of channels for the production of N-heterocycles incorporates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as catalysts. Thereby, an exploration of a variety of production paths should reveal more species to be target of astrophysical observations., 7 pages, 6 figures and 3 tables

The authors thank the anonymous referee for the useful comments that improved the article. CMC acknowledges the support of CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico Brazil, process number 141714/2016-6. This study was financed in part by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. LB acknowledges support fromCONICYT (Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica) project Basal AFB-170002. EM acknowledges support from the Brazilian agencies FAPESP (Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, grant 2014/22095-6) and CNPq (grant 150465/2019-0). MC acknowledges the financial support from theEuropean Union'sHorizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no 872081; from the Spanish National Research, Development, and Innovation plan (RDI plan) under the project PID2019-104002GB-C21; the Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidad, Junta de Andalucia and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), ref. SOMM17/6105/UGR; the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (ref. COOPB20364); and by the Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Fisica, Matematicas y Computacion (CEAFMC) of the University of Huelva., Isocyanic acid (HNCO) is a simple molecule with a potential to form prebiotic and complex organic species. Using a spectral survey collected with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment, in this work we report the detection of 42 transitions of HNCO in the hot molecular core/outflow G331.512-0.103 (hereafter G331). The spectral lines were observed in the frequency interval ∼160–355 GHz. By means of Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium analyses, applying the rotational diagram method, we studied the excitation conditions of HNCO. The excitation temperature and column density are estimated to be Tex= 58.8 ± 2.7 K and N = (3.7 ± 0.5) × 1015 cm−2, considering beam dilution effects. The derived relative abundance is between (3.8 ± 0.5) × 10−9 and (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10−8. In comparison with other hot molecular cores, our column densities and abundances are in agreement. An update of the internal partition functions of the four CHNO isomers: HNCO; cyanic acid, HOCN; fulminic acid, HCNO; and isofulminic acid, HONC is provided. We also used the astrochemical code NAUTILUS to model and discuss HNCO abundances. The simulations could reproduce the abundances with a simple zero-dimensional model at a temperature of 60 K and for a chemical age of ∼105 yr, which is larger than the estimated dynamical age for G331. This result could suggest the need for a more robust model and even the revision of chemical reactions associated with HNCO., Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 141714/2016-6, Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) 001, Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) Basal AFB-170002, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) 2014/22095-6, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 150465/2019-0, European Union'sHorizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant 872081, Spanish National Research, Development, and Innovation plan (RDI plan) PID2019-104002GB-C21, Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidad, Junta de Andalucia, European Commission SOMM17/6105/UGR, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades COOPB20364, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Fisica, Matematicas y Computacion (CEAFMC) of the University of Huelva

The central part of the Galaxy hosts a multitude of stellar populations, including the spheroidal bulge stars, stars moved to the bulge through secular evolution of the bar, inner halo, inner thick disc, inner thin disc, as well as debris from past accretion events. We identified a sample of 58 candidate stars belonging to the stellar population of the spheroidal bulge, and analyse their abundances. The present calculations of Mg, Ca, and Si lines are in agreement with the ASPCAP abundances, whereas abundances of C, N, O, and Ce are re-examined. We find normal α-element enhancements in oxygen, similar to magnesium, Si, and Ca abundances, which are typical of other bulge stars surveyed in the optical in Baade’s Window. The enhancement of [O/Fe] in these stars suggests that they do not belong to accreted debris. No spread in N abundances is found, and none of the sample stars is N-rich, indicating that these stars are not second generation stars originated in globular clusters. Ce instead is enhanced in the sample stars, which points to an s-process origin such as due to enrichment from early generations of massive fast rotating stars, the so-called spinstars., RR acknowledges a CNPq master fellowship. TM acknowledges FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship no. 2018/03480-7. HE acknowledges a CAPES PhD fellowship. A.P.-V. and S.O.S. acknowledge the DGAPA-PAPIIT grant IA103122. SOS acknowledges a FAPESP PhD fellowship no. 2018/22044-3. SOS and MV acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, project number: 428473034). BB acknowledges grants from FAPESP, CNPq, and CAPES – Financial code 001. J.G.F-T gratefully acknowledges the grant support provided by Proyecto Fondecyt Iniciación No. 11220340, and also from ANID Concurso de Fomento a la Vinculación Internacional para Instituciones de Investigación Regionales (Modalidad corta duración) Proyecto No. FOVI210020, and from the ESO – Government of Chile Joint Committee 2021 (ORP 023/2021). D.G. gratefully acknowledges support from the ANID BASAL project ACE210002. D.G. also acknowledges financial support from the Dirección de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Universidad de La Serena through the Programa de Incentivo a la Investigación de Académicos (PIA-DIDULS). The work of V.M.P. is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. MZ was funded by ANID FONDECYT Regular 1191505, ANID Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) under grant ICN12_009, the ANID BASAL Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) through grants AFB170002, ACE210002 and FB210003. DM gratefully acknowledges support by the ANID BASAL projects ACE210002 and FB210003 and by Fondecyt Project No. 1220724. RR, BB, TM, HE, SOS, are part of the Brazilian Participation Group (BPG) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), from the Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia – LIneA, Brazil. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) / University of Tokyo, the Korean Participation Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatório Nacional / MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University. This work makes use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission Gaia. The Gaia mission website is https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia. The Gaia archive website is https://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia.

The information on Galactic assembly time is imprinted on the chemodynamics of globular clusters. This makes them important probes that help us to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Discerning between in-situ and ex-situ origin of these objects is difficult when we study the Galactic bulge, which is the most complex and mixed component of the Milky Way. To investigate the early evolution of the Galactic bulge, we analysed the globular cluster NGC 6355. We derived chemical abundances and kinematic and dynamic properties by gathering information from high-resolution spectroscopy with FLAMES-UVES, photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope, and Galactic dynamic calculations applied to the globular cluster NGC 6355. We derive an age of $13.2\pm1.1$ Gyr and a metallicity of [Fe/H]$=-1.39\pm0.08$ for NGC 6355, with $\alpha$-enhancement of [$\alpha$/Fe]$=+0.37\pm0.11$. The abundance pattern of the globular cluster is compatible with bulge field RR Lyrae stars and in-situ well-studied globular clusters. The orbital parameters suggest that the cluster is currently confined within the bulge volume when we consider a heliocentric distance of $8.54\pm0.19$ kpc and an extinction coefficient of $R_V = 2.84\pm0.02$. NGC 6355 is highly likely to come from the main bulge progenitor. {Nevertheless, it still} has a low probability of being formed from an accreted event because its age is uncertain and because of the combined [Mg/Mn] [Al/Fe] abundance. Its relatively low metallicity with respect to old and moderately metal-poor inner Galaxy clusters may suggest a low-metallicity floor for globular clusters that formed in-situ in the early Galactic bulge., Comment: 20 pages, 26 figures, and 9 tables. Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press. Some minor corrections

Since the start of ALMA observatory operation, new and important chemistry of infrared cold core was revealed. Molecular transitions at millimeter range are being used to identify and to characterize these sources. We have investigated the 231 GHz ALMA archive observations of the infrared dark cloud region C9, focusing on the brighter source that we called as IRDC-C9 Main. We report the existence of two sub-structures on the continuum map of this source: a compact bright spot with high chemistry diversity that we labelled as core, and a weaker and extended one, that we labelled as tail. In the core, we have identified lines of the molecules OCS(19-18), $^{13}$CS(5-4) and CH$_{3}$CH$_{2}$CN, several lines of CH$_{3}$CHO and the k-ladder emission of $^{13}$CH$_{3}$CN.We report two different temperature regions: while the rotation diagram of CH$_{3}$CHO indicates a temperature of 25 K, the rotation diagram of $^{13}$CH$_{3}$CN indicates a warmer phase at temperature of $\sim450$K. In the tail, only the OCS(19-18) and $^{13}$CS(5-4) lines were detected. We used the $Nautilus$ and the \textsc{Radex} codes to estimate the column densities and the abundances. The existence of hot gas in the core of IRDC-C9 Main suggests the presence of a protostar, which is not present in the tail., Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. Accept in MNRAS

Environmental conditions have changed in the past of our planet but were not hostile enough to extinguish life. In the future, an aged Earth and a more luminous Sun may lead to harsh or even uninhabitable conditions for life. In order to estimate the life span of the biosphere we built a minimal model of the co-evolution of the geosphere, atmosphere and biosphere of our planet, taking into account temperature boundaries, CO2partial pressure lower limits for C3 and C4 plants, and the presence of enough surface water. Our results indicate that the end of the biosphere will happen long before the Sun becomes a red giant, as the biosphere faces increasingly more difficult conditions in the future until its collapse due to high temperatures. The lower limit for CO2partial pressure for C3 plants will be reached in 170(+ 320, − 110) Myr, followed by the C4 plants limit in 840(+ 270, − 100) Myr. The mean surface temperature will reach 373 K in 1.63(+ 0.14, − 0.05) Gyr, a point that would mark the extinction of the biosphere. Water loss due to internal geophysical processes will not be dramatic, implying almost no variation in the surface ocean mass and ocean depth for the next 1.5 billion years. Our predictions show qualitative convergence and some quantitative agreement with results found in the literature, but there is considerable scattering in the scale of hundreds of millions of years for all the criteria devised. Even considering these uncertainties, the end of the biosphere will hardly happen sooner than 1.5 Gyr.

The Milky Way bulge is an important tracer of the early formation and chemical enrichment of the Galaxy. The abundances of different iron-peak elements in field bulge stars can give information on the nucleosynthesis processes that took place in the earliest supernovae. Cobalt (Z=27) and copper (Z=29) are particularly interesting.We aim to identify the nucleosynthesis processes responsible for the formation of the iron-peak elements Co and Cu. Methods. We derived abundances of the iron-peak elements cobalt and copper in 56 bulge giants, 13 of which were red clump stars. High-resolution spectra were obtained using FLAMES-UVES at the ESO Very Large Telescope by our group in 2000-2002, which appears to be the highest quality sample of high-resolution data on bulge red giants obtained in the literature to date. Over the years we have derived the abundances of C, N, O, Na, Al, Mg; the iron-group elements Mn and Zn; and neutron-capture elements. In the present work we derive abundances of the iron-peak elements cobalt and copper. We also compute chemodynamical evolution models to interpret the observed behaviour of these elements as a function of iron. The sample stars show mean values of [Co/Fe]~0.0 at all metallicities, and [Cu/Fe]~0.0 for [Fe/H]>-0.8 and decreasing towards lower metallicities with a behaviour of a secondary element. We conclude that [Co/Fe] varies in lockstep with [Fe/H], which indicates that it should be produced in the alpha-rich freezeout mechanism in massive stars. Instead [Cu/Fe] follows the behaviour of a secondary element towards lower metallicities, indicating its production in the weak s-process nucleosynthesis in He-burning and later stages. The chemodynamical models presented here confirm the behaviour of these two elements (i.e. [Co/Fe] vs. [Fe/H]~constant and [Cu/Fe] decreasing with decreasing metallicities)., Accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics

Oxygen and zinc in the Galactic bulge are key elements for the understanding of the bulge chemical evolution. Oxygen-to-iron abundance ratios provide a most robust indicator of the star formation rate and chemical evolution of the bulge. Zinc is enhanced in metal-poor stars, behaving as an $\alpha$-element, and its production may require nucleosynthesis in hypernovae. Most of the neutral gas at high redshift is in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs), where Zn is also observed to behave as an alpha-element. The aim of this work is the derivation of the alpha-element oxygen, together with nitrogen, and the iron-peak element zinc abundances in 417 bulge giants, from moderate resolution (R~22,000) FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectra. For stars in common with a set of UVES spectra with higher resolution (R~45,000), the data are intercompared. The results are compared with literature data and chemodynamical models., Comment: accepted on 21/02/2018

Analyses of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) feature profiles, especially the 6.2 $\mu$m feature, could indicate the presence of nitrogen incorporated in their aromatic rings. In this work, 155 predominantly starburst-dominated galaxies (including HII regions and Seyferts, for example), extracted from the Spitzer/IRS ATLAS project (Hern\'an-Caballero & Hatziminaoglou 2011), have their 6.2 $\mu$m profiles fitted allowing their separation into the Peeters' A, B and C classes (Peeters et al. 2002). 67% of these galaxies were classified as class A, 31% were as class B and 2% as class C. Currently class A sources, corresponding to a central wavelength near 6.22 $\mu$m, seem only to be explained by polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles (PANH, Hudgins et al. 2005), whereas class B may represent a mix between PAHs and PANHs emissions or different PANH structures or ionization states. Therefore, these spectra suggest a significant presence of PANHs in the interstellar medium (ISM) of these galaxies that could be related to their starburst-dominated emission. These results also suggest that PANHs constitute another reservoir of nitrogen in the Universe, in addition to the nitrogen in the gas phase and ices of the ISM.

Globular clusters are tracers of the history of star formation and chemical enrichment in the early Galaxy. Their abundance pattern can help understanding their chemical enrichment processes. In particular, the iron-peak elements have been relatively little studied so far in the Galactic bulge. The abundances of iron-peak elements are derived for the sample clusters, and compared with bulge field, and thick disk stars. We derive abundances of the iron-peak elements Sc, V, Mn, Cu, and Zn in individual stars of five bulge globular clusters (NGC 6528, NGC 6553, NGC 6522, NGC 6558, HP1), and of the reference thick disk/inner halo cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104). High resolution spectra were obtained with the UVES spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope over the years. The sample globular clusters studied span metallicities in the range -1.2, Comment: article resubmitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics, taking into account referee's comments

The establishment of cosmology as a science provides a parallel to the building-up of the scientific status of astrobiology. The rise of astrobiological studies is explicitly based on a transdisciplinary approach that reminds of the Copernican Revolution, which eroded the basis of a closed Aristotelian worldview and reinforced the notion that the frontiers between disciplines are artificial. Given the intrinsic complexity of the astrobiological studies, with its multifactorial evidences and theoretical/experimental approaches, multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives are mandatory. Insulated expertise cannot grasp the vastness of the astrobiological issues. This need for integration among disciplines and research areas is antagonistic to excessive specialization and compartmentalization, allowing astrobiology to be qualified as a truly transdisciplinary enterprise. The present paper discusses the scientific status of astrobiological studies, based on the view that every kind of life, Earth-based or not, should be considered in a cosmic context. A confluence between ‘astro’ and ‘bio’ seeks the understanding of life as an emerging phenomenon in the universe. Thus, a new epistemological niche is opened, pointing to the development of a pluralistic vision for the philosophy of astrobiology.

Dark energy is the invisible fuel that seems to drive the current acceleration of the Universe. Its presence, which is inferred from an impressive convergence of high-quality observational results along with some apparently sucessful theoretical predictions, is also supported by the current estimates of the age of the Universe from dating of local and high-$z$ objects. In this paper we test the viability of several dark energy scenarios in the light of the age estimates of the high redshift ($z=3.91$) quasar APM 08279+5255. Using a chemodinamical model for the evolution of spheroids, we first reevaluate its current estimated age, as given by Hasinger et al. (2002). An age of 2.1 Gyr is set by the condition that Fe/O abundance ratio (normalized to solar values) of the model reaches 3.3, which is the best fit value obtained in the above reference. It is shown that for the currently accepted value of the matter density parameter, most of the existing dark energy scenarios cannot accomodate this old high redshift object unless the Hubble parameter is as low as $H_o = 58$ $\rm{km.s^{-1}.Mpc^{-1}}$, as recently advocated by Sandage and collaborators. Even considering less stringent age limits, only cosmological models that predicts a considerably old Universe at high-$z$ can be compatible with the existence of this object. This is the case of the conventional $\Lambda$CDM scenario and some specific classes of brane world cosmologies.

The deuterium abundances in high-redshift QSO absorption-line systems could be an important constraint in models of galaxy formation. Here we investigate the role of galactic winds and massive cooling flows present during the formation of galaxies on the evolution of deuterium abundance. Destruction factors are calculated and the time and spatial scales for the dispersal through galactic winds of the processed deuterium-depleted gas are presented and related to the D/H determinations for QSO absorption-line systems. The calculations are derived from a chemodynamical model within a scenario in which the absorbers are located inside the hot halo of a young galaxy.

Context. Zinc in stars is an important reference element because it is a proxy to Fe in studies of damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs), permitting a comparison of chemical evolution histories of bulge stellar populations and DLAs. In terms of nucleosynthesis, it behaves as an alpha element because it is enhanced in metal-poor stars. Abundance studies in different stellar populations can give hints to the Zn production in different sites. Aims. The aim of this work is to derive the iron-peak element Zn abundances in 56 bulge giants from high resolution spectra. These results are compared with data from other bulge samples, as well as from disk and halo stars, and damped Lyman-α systems, in order to better understand the chemical evolution in these environments. Methods. High-resolution spectra were obtained using FLAMES+UVES on the Very Large Telescope. We computed the Zn abundances using the Zn i lines at 4810.53 and 6362.34 A. We considered the strong depression in the continuum of the Zn i 6362.34 A line, which is caused by the wings of the Ca i 6361.79 A line suffering from autoionization. CN lines blending the Zn i 6362.34 A line are also included in the calculations. Results. We find [Zn/Fe] =+ 0.24 ± 0.02 in the range −1.3 < [Fe/H] < −0. 5a nd [Zn/Fe] =+ 0.06 ± 0.02 in the range −0.5 < [Fe/H] < −0.1, whereas for [Fe/H] ≥− 0.1, it shows a spread of −0.60 < [Zn/Fe] < +0.15, with most of these stars having low [Zn/Fe] < 0.0. These low zinc abundances at the high metallicity end of the bulge define a decreasing trend in [Zn/Fe] with increasing metallicities. A comparison with Zn abundances in DLA systems is presented, where a dust-depletion correction was applied for both Zn and Fe. When we take these corrections into account, the [Zn/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] of the DLAs fall in the same region as the thick disk and bulge stars. Finally, we present a chemical evolution model of Zn enrichment in massive spheroids, representing a typical classical bulge evolution.