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What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2006

T. J. Millar
Affiliation:
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Sackville Street Building, Manchester M60 1QD, UK email: [email protected] Current address: School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland; email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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I review recent progress in determining the rate coefficients appropriate to modelling interstellar chemistry, give some information on appropriate databases from which rate coefficients can be obtained, and point to the importance of the gas-grain interaction in determining molecular abundances. Although many of the fundamental gas-phase reactions have been studied in the laboratory, the failure of the models to explain the observations of water and methanol in cold clouds indicates that grains may have an important role, both in acting as a surface for freeze-out and in the synthesis of complex molecules. The major challenge in astrochemistry is to develop a more quantitative model for the role of grains and, in some cases, to incorporate a better, probably more complex, physical model for interstellar clouds.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
2006 International Astronomical Union