SFC/DIVISION DE CHIMIE PHYSIQUE SOCIETE FRANQAISE DE PHYSIQUE PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF MOLECULES AND GRAINS IN SPACE

The development of new instruments for ground-based (IRAM, VLT, VLBI*) and satellite (ISO, FIRST project*) observations will continue to generate a wealth of new results on physical and chemical behaviour of matter in space. The extreme environmental conditions (dilution, temperature, radiation) under which chemical species are usually found in space give rise to a complex non-equilibrium dyna­ mics involving exotic molecules, radicals and other materials. This provides challenging problems for