Detection of interstellar 1-cyanopyrene: A four-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wenzel, Gabi; Cooke, Ilsa R.; Changala, P. Bryan; Bergin, Edwin A.; Zhang, Shuo; Burkhardt, Andrew M.; Byrne, Alex N.; Charnley, Steven B.; Cordiner, Martin A.; Duffy, Miya; Fried, Zachary T. P.; Gupta, Harshal; Holdren, Martin S.; Lipnicky, Andrew; Loomis, Ryan A.; Shay, Hannah Toru; Shingledecker, Christopher N.; Siebert, Mark A.; Stewart, D. Archie; Willis, Reace H. J.; Xue, Ci; Remijan, Anthony J.; Wendlandt, Alison E.; Mccarthy, Michael C.; Mcguire, Brett A.
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of British Columbia; Smithsonian Institution; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; Massachusetts System of Public Higher Education; Worcester State University; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF - Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS); NSF - Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST); National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO); University of Virginia; Chalmers University of Technology
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10146
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adq6391
• 发表日期: 2024-11-15
• 页码: 810-813
• 关键词: infrared-emission; dust; pahs; chemistry; nitriles; SPECTRA; samples; SPACE

摘要

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. We detected 1-cyanopyrene, a cyano-substituted derivative of the related four-ring PAH pyrene, in radio observations of the dense cloud TMC-1, using the Green Bank Telescope. The measured column density of 1-cyanopyrene is similar to 1.52x1012 cm-2, from which we estimate that pyrene contains up to 0.1% of the carbon in TMC-1. This abundance indicates that interstellar PAH chemistry favors the production of pyrene. We suggest that some of the carbon supplied to young planetary systems is carried by PAHs that originate in cold molecular clouds.