Astrochemistry, Inside Cosmic Kitchens

Born in the late 1930s with the development of spectroscopy and radio astronomy, astrochemistry, a field at the intersection of astrophysics and chemistry, is now mature. New means for observing the sky using infrared and radio have increased its capacity to remotely detect molecules in space, while the trove of information sent by the probes crisscrossing the Solar System—and advances in instrumentation—have provided it with the tools needed to test its hypotheses through realistic experiments.