This volume contains the lectures presented at the first course of the Inter national School of Space Chemistry held in Erice (Sicily) from May 10 to May 20 at the 'E. Majorana Centre for Scientific Culture'. The course was attended by 57 participants from 11 countries. The recognition by Professor A. Zichichi that space chemistry is one of the important and rapidly growing scientific disciplines with many and varied appli cations provided the stimulation to initiate this new school. Historically, the study of chemistry in space had its major origins in comets, the solar nebula and circumstellar envelopes before the interstellar medium achieved its current prominence. A remarkably rapid development in interstellar chemistry was precipitated by the discovery of formaldehyde in the late 1960's made possible by the new radio observational techniques. A four atom molecule in interstellar space was indeed a surprise considering that only a short time ear lier there were still arguments about the existence of the simplest of all molecules - the hydrogen molecule. The application of ion-molecule reactions to interstellar cloud chemistry provided a rich variety of new possibilities which were, however, continuously under pressure to keep pace with radio-astronomical discoveries of more and more complex molecules.

Klappentext

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Erice, Italy, May 10-20, 1989

Inhalt
Nuclear Processes.- Chemical Enrichment of the Interstellar Medium.- A Brief Introduction to the Cosmic Radiation.- Molecules and Dust in Interstellar and Circumstellar Environments.- Interstellar Chemistry.- The Molecular Composition of Dense Interstellar Clouds.- Molecular Clouds in Regions of Massive Star Formation.- Circumstellar Chemistry.- The Chemistry of Supernova 1987A.- Small Grains and Large Aromatic Molecules.- Physical Chemical and Optical Interactions with Interstellar Dust.- Physical and Chemical Effects Induced by Fast Ions in Ices of Astrophysical Interest.- Chemical Analyses with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO).- Solar System.- Chemistry in the Solar Nebula.- The Volatile Composition of Comets Deduced from Ultraviolet Spectroscopy.- From Interstellar Dust to Comets to Comet Dust: A Test of the Interstellar Dust Model of Comets.- Feature of Experimental Studying of Comet Halley Dust Particles Elemental Composition.- Chemical Composition of Halley's Dust Component of the Puma-2 Data.- Contributed papers.- Heavy Metal Abundances in Nova Ejecta Revealed by Infrared Coronal Emission Lines.- Impulsive Model of Collisions.- Adiabatic Approximations for Molecules in Magnetic Fields.- The Calculation of Ro-vibrational Molecular Spectra from First Principles.- Irradiation Parameters in Cosmic Chemistry.- Cosmic Ray Induced Photons: Are They Really Important?.- Ion-Molecule Reactions at Dense Interstellar Cloud Temperatures: The CRESUS Apparatus.- Interstellar H2S: Probe of Grain Surface Chemistry.- Results of a Galactic Survey for the Ring Molecule Cyclopropenylidene (C3H2).- Possible Assignment of the 11.3 ?m UIR Feature to Emission from Soot-like Microparticles with Internal Hydrogens.- Spectroscopic Studies of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)and PAH Mixtures in the Infrared and Visible.- Very Small Particles in The Interstellar Medium.- The Effect of the Choice of the Grain Model on the H2 Production by Cosmic Rays in Dense Clouds.- Chemical Enrichment of the Halo by Dust Expulsion.- Astromacromolecules: Formation of Very Large Molecules in Interstellar Space.- Small-size Dust Particles Near Halley's Comet.- The Possibility of the Formation of Layer Silicates in Halley's Comet Nucleus.- Index of Chemical Species.