Laboratory Astrophysics and Radio Astronomy: Some Recent Successes.

This paper presents several examples illustrating how the close coordination of laboratory astrophysics and radio astronomy can lead to an improved understanding of the rich chemistry of circumstellar shells which surround evolved carbon stars and dense molecular clouds. State-of-the-art microwave techniques in combination with supersonic molecular beam techniques and long path absorption spectroscopy at millimeter-wave wavelengths are used here to determine precise rest frequencies of known or postulated reactive molecules of astrophysical interest. Because the astronomically most interesting lines either have been measured or can be calculated to better than 1 km/sec in equivalent radial velocity, dedicated astronomical searches can be undertaken with confidence, and the carriers of unidentified series of astronomical lines can be established with certainty. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]