Just for fun, I took a list of molecules you can find in space and made a word matrix from it. The result shows the relationship between molecular species and their occurrence in the astronomical literature.

There is a nice cluster of Hydrogen-bearing molecules that seem to correlate well, same for Carbon. I don’t even know about all the Potassium compounds on here, but they seem to correlate with lots of stuff. I may have to pester some real astrochemistry friends about this one…

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As it turns out, I’m using my bus journeys to create more lists once in a while. If anyone has suggestions for lists, please tweet me @orbitingfrog.