Talk:Astrochemistry

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Category:Chemistry is overpopulated. If you can help, please ensure this article is in an appropriate subcategory and remove it from Category:Chemistry.

• This is a high-level topic within chemistry, the combination of astronomy and chemistry, and is properly categorized into the general Category:Chemistry. Courtland 01:52, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] chemistry (chemical elements) vs chemistry (nuclear physics)

{{citation needed}}: do people using the term astrochemistry really deal strongly with "chemistry" in the astronomical sense, meaning nuclear reactions in stars? It would be good for someone to find an online reference, which shouldn't be hard.

i replace "nuclear chemistry" by "nuclear physics" because the wikipedia is not intended to confuse people. Astronomers normally say "chemistry" when we talk about nuclear reactions. That's just a historical fact. So when astronomers also talk about reactions between chemical elements, you need to be careful to distinguish the real physical nature of what we're talking about. Boud 12:47, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Astrochemists do not work on nuclear synthesis within stars - and instead focus on molecular reactions in clouds, dense cores, and to a certain extent the outer atmospheres of dust producing AGB stars etc. 87.80.116.129

Nope, nuclear synthesis is a part of astrophysics. Chemistry, by necessity, deals with molecules, so chemists find the interiors of stars (where there are no molecules) rather uninteresting. Modest Genius ^talk 00:03, 2 February 2007 (UTC)