Detection of interstellar 1-cyanopyrene: A four-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
Journal article, 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. 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.
Author
Gabi Wenzel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Ilsa R. Cooke
University of British Columbia (UBC)
P. Bryan Changala
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
E. A. Bergin
University of Michigan
Shuo Zhang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Andrew M. Burkhardt
Worcester State University
Alex N. Byrne
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Steven B. Charnley
NASA, Astrochem Lab, Goddard Space Flight Ctr
Martin A. Cordiner
NASA, Astrochem Lab, Goddard Space Flight Ctr
Miya Duffy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Zachary T. P. Fried
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Harshal Gupta
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Natl Sci Fdn, Div Astron Sci
Martin S. Holdren
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Andrew Lipnicky
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Ryan A. Loomis
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Hannah Toru Shay
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Christopher N. Shingledecker
Virginia Mil Inst, Dept Chem
Mark Siebert
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
University of Virginia
D. Archie Stewart
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Reace H. J. Willis
University of British Columbia (UBC)
Ci Xue
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Anthony J. Remijan
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Alison E. Wendlandt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Michael C. Mccarthy
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Brett A. Mcguire
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Science
0036-8075 (ISSN) 1095-9203 (eISSN)
Vol. 386 6723 810-813Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
DOI
10.1126/science.adq6391
PubMed
39446895