Prestellar cores are dense fragments of molecular clouds where new stellar systems will form. They contain all the ingredients out of which future planets and maybe life will originate. Important first steps toward the formation of water, complex organic molecules and isotope fractionation start at these early stages. It is then important to study the physical and chemical structure of pre-stellar cores, also to understand later stages of star and planet formation.  In this talk, I shall focus on water and its diagnostic power to study pre-stellar cores. Observations of water vapor made with Herschel will be reviewed as well as more recent work on water ice features toward a nearby molecular cloud. Comparison with astrochemical models will be presented and a glance to future missions, in particular JWST, provided. <br/><br/>

Water at the dawn of star formation

2019 Fall National Meeting

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