Tracing phosphorus through cosmic evolution: From interstellar space to Earth's biochemistry

There is a large diversity in the chemical composition of astronomical objects such as planets, comets, circumstellar envelopes, or galactic gas clouds. One great challenge in astrochemistry is to understand in detail how this diversity arises from the cosmic backdrop of the cycling of matter between star birth and destruction, with molecules forming, reacting and coalescing in cold clouds of dust and ice in between these events.