2024A&A...692A.120L

Context. The formation mechanism of interstellar formamide (NH₂CHO), a key prebiotic precursor, is currently a matter of hot debate within the astrochemistry community, with both gas-phase and grain-surface chemical pathways having been proposed as its dominant formation route.
Aims. The aim of the present study is to place firm observational constraints on the formation pathways leading to formamide thanks to new interferometric observations of the molecular outflow driven by the protostellar binary L1157.
Methods. We employed the IRAM NOEMA interferometer to map the entire southern outflow of L1157, which contains three main shocked regions with increasing post-shock age: B0, B1, and B2. This allowed us to measure how the abundance of formamide, that of acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO), and the ratio of the two, vary with time in this region. In order to gain a greater understanding of the most likely formation routes of formamide, we ran a grid of astrochemical models and compared these to our observations.
Results. A comparison between observations and astrochemical modelling indicates that there are two possible scenarios: one in which the amount of formamide observed can be explained by gas-phase-only chemistry, and more specifically via the reaction H₂CO + NH₂ → NH₂CHO + H₂ , and another in which part of the observed formamide originates from surface chemistry and part from gas-phase chemistry. Surface chemistry alone cannot account for the abundance of formamide that we measure.
Conclusions. While grain-surface chemistry cannot be ruled out, the present study brings definitive proof that gas-phase chemistry does work in L1157-B and acts efficiently in the production of this molecular species.