Silicate-mediated interstellar water formation: A theoretical study.

ABSTRACT: Water is one of the most abundant molecules in the form of solid ice phase in the different regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). This large abundance cannot be properly explained by using only traditional low temperature gas-phase reactions. Thus, surface chemical reactions are believed to be major synthetic channels for the formation of interstellar water ice. Among the different proposals, hydrogenation of atomic O (i.e., 2H + O → H₂O) is a chemically "simple" and plausible reaction toward water formation occurring on the surfaces of interstellar grains. Here, novel theoretical results concerning the formation of water adopting this mechanism on the crystalline (010) Mg₂SiO₄ surface (a unequivocally identified interstellar silicate) are presen

SUBMITTER: Molpeceres G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6544534 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature