Molecular Astronomy

Abstract

At the first A.S.A. meeting in 1966 radio astronomers knew of only the 21 cm line of hydrogen, a handful of hydroxyl lines and some radio recombination lines. The number of molecular lines now known in the radio spectrum is close to 220, so radio spectroscopy has become a fully fledged subject. I shall not discuss here the recent ultraviolet studies of H2, HD and CO molecules that have been reviewed by Spitzer and Jenkins (1975).