DETECTION OF A NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULE, H(2)CN

Authors

M OHISHI
D MCGONAGLE
William M. Irvine, University of Massachusetts - AmherstFollow
S YAMAMOTO
S SAITO

Publication Date

1994

Journal or Book Title

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

Abstract

We have detected a new interstellar molecule, H2CN (methylene amidogen), in the cold, dark molecular cloud TMC-1. The column density of H2CN is estimated to be approximately 1.5 x 10¹¹ cm^-2 by assuming an excitation temperature of 5 K. This column density corresponds to a fractional abundance relative to H2 of approximately 1.5 x 10^-11. This value is more than three orders of magnitude less than the abundance of the related molecule HCN in TMC-1. We also report a tentative detection of H2CN in Sgr B2(N). The formation mechanism of H2CN is discussed. Our detection of the N2CN molecule may suggest the existence of a new series of carbon-chain molecules, CH2C(n)N (N = 0, 1, 2, ...).

Comments

The published version is located at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1994ApJ...427L..51O

Pages

L51-L54

Volume

427

Issue

1

Recommended Citation

OHISHI, M; MCGONAGLE, D; Irvine, William M.; YAMAMOTO, S; and SAITO, S, "DETECTION OF A NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULE, H(2)CN" (1994). ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL. 225.
Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/astro_faculty_pubs/225