Á. López-Gallifa

In a cold gas cloud right at the center of our Galaxy, designated G+0.693-0.027, hides a true chemical laboratory. There, far from stars, on the surfaces of tiny dust grains, about the size of smoke particles, atoms stick together into molecules, like dough on a kitchen counter.

In an oven, a huge loaf of bread is baking. Inside the dough, there is a tiny, hottest spot: that's where the future loaf begins to rise. A hot molecular core (a region the size of the Solar System, where gas is heated to hundreds of degrees and compressed to billions of times the density of ordinary clouds) works in much the same way.