Scientists discover molecules that store much of the carbon in space

MIT News  October 24, 2024
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic molecules containing adjacent aromatic rings. Infrared emission bands show that PAHs are abundant in space, but only a few specific PAHs have been detected in the interstellar medium. An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, University of Michigan, Worcester State University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Harvard Smithsonian, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Virginia Military Institute, University of Virginia, Canada) detected 1-cyanopyrene, a cyano-substituted derivative of the related four-ring PAH pyrene, in radio observations of the dense cloud TMC-1.
They estimated that pyrene contains up to 0.1% of the carbon in TMC-1. According to the researchers the abundance indicated that interstellar PAH chemistry favors the production of pyrene. They suggested that some of the carbon supplied to young planetary systems was carried by PAHs that originated in cold molecular clouds… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE