A NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULE - TRICARBON MONOXIDE

Authors

HE MATTHEWS
William M. Irvine, University of Massachusetts - AmherstFollow
P FRIBERG
RD BROWN
PD GODFREY

Publication Date

1984

Journal or Book Title

NATURE

Abstract

The cold dark interstellar Taurus Molecular Cloud One (TMC-1) is a rich source of acetylenic and polyacetylenic molecular species. As well as linear closed-shell molecules (H(CC)_nCN) and symmetric rotors (CH₃CCH, CH₃CCN), several radicals (CCH, CCCN, (CC)₂H) have also been identified¹⁻⁵, many of which had not been studied previously in the laboratory. Whether the observed abundances can be understood in terms of purely gas-phase ion−molecule chemical schemes, which produce reasonable agreement for the simplest polyatomic species, is unclear^6,7; alternative models involving the participate interstellar grains as catalysts or sources have also been suggested^8,9. We now report the detection in TMC-1 of a new molecule, triearbon monoxide (C₃O), whose pure rotational spectrum has only very recently been studied in the laboratory. As C₃O is the first known interstellar carbon chain molecule to contain oxygen, its existence places an important new constraint on chemical schemes for cold interstellar clouds. In fact, the observed abundance of triearbon monoxide fits quite well into our model of galactochemistry.

Comments

The published version is located at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v310/n5973/abs/310125a0.html

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/310125a0

Pages

125-126

Volume

310

Issue

5973

Recommended Citation

MATTHEWS, HE; Irvine, William M.; FRIBERG, P; BROWN, RD; and GODFREY, PD, "A NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULE - TRICARBON MONOXIDE" (1984). NATURE. 282.
https://doi.org/10.1038/310125a0