Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Regions of the Magellanic
  Clouds
  The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC), gas-rich dwarf
companions of the Milky Way, are the nearest laboratories for detailed studies
on the formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs) under metal
poor conditions. To date, only methanol, methyl formate, and dimethyl ether
have been detected in these galaxies - all three toward two hot cores in the
N113 star-forming region in the LMC, the only extragalactic sources exhibiting
complex hot core chemistry. We describe a small and diverse sample of the LMC
and SMC sources associated with COMs or hot core chemistry, and compare the
observations to theoretical model predictions. Theoretical models accounting
for the physical conditions and metallicity of hot molecular cores in the
Magellanic Clouds have been able to broadly account for the existing
observations, but fail to reproduce the dimethyl ether abundance by more than
an order of magnitude. We discuss future prospects for research in the field of
complex chemistry in the low-metallicity environment. The detection of COMs in
the Magellanic Clouds has important implications for astrobiology. The
metallicity of the Magellanic Clouds is similar to galaxies in the earlier
epochs of the Universe, thus the presence of COMs in the LMC and SMC indicates
that a similar prebiotic chemistry leading to the emergence of life, as it
happened on Earth, is possible in low-metallicity systems in the earlier
Universe.
