By studying a wide variety of molecules (such as methanol [CH3OH], ethanol [C2H5OH], ethyl cyanide [C2H5CN], methyl formate [HCOOCH3], dimethyl ether [(CH3)2O] and acetone [(CH3)2CO]) in a large number of differing environments (such as comets, low mass star forming regions, high mass star forming regions, and Herbig-Haro objects) one can get a fuller understanding of astrochemical processes.
My thesis work involved spectral line surveys of Sagittarius B2(N-LMH) and Orion-KL, two high mass star forming regions. These studies showed that a large percentage (~30%) of the spectral line observed cannot be identified with the current catalogs. Most of these lines are likely to be vibrationally excited transitions of well known species which have not been fully studied in the lab, however some of them will be from previously unknown species in the ISM.