EPJ D Roadmap - Roadmap on carbon molecular nanostructures in space

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Published on 05 August 2025

A new Roadmap is published in EPJD

The roadmap on carbon molecular nanostructures in space contains forty contributions from leading scientists in observational astronomy, laboratory astrophysics/chemistry, spectroscopy, theoretical chemistry, astrobiology, molecular reaction dynamics, graph theory and materials science. It highlights a rapidly developing, interdisciplinary field of research that is benefiting from recent technical advances in both observational astronomy and laboratory infrastructure combined with new powerful machine learning approaches to data analysis and modelling. The rapidly expanding inventory of carbon molecular nanostructures found in space is opening up many fundamental questions concerning their origin, astrochemical relevance and significance for the origin of life. The roadmap documents the state-of-the-art in observational and laboratory studies along with the current theoretical and experimental challenges to be overcome in order to achieve a greater understanding of the physics and chemistry of cosmic carbon molecular nanostructures. New insights are being made into the properties and resilience of these fascinating molecular species that are not only of fundamental importance for understanding the chemistry of space but have wider terrestrial relevance and impact in nanotechnology and catalysis.