2024-10-18 16:07:00
This was discovered by an international team led by the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). the largest molecules found so far in space. Specifically, these are two molecules composed of 21 atoms each and which have been located in the cold interstellar cloud TMC-1, 500 light years away.
The results obtained were published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, data that provide new lines of understanding great chemical complexity of the Universe.
The interstellar cloud TMC-1 (Taurus Molecular Cloud) is located in the constellation of Taurus, about 500 light years away and is one of the closest to the observation of star formation.
For this discovery, the 40-meter radio telescope of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) located at the Yebes Observatory (Guadalajara) was used. represents an important step towards understanding the chemical composition of this star-forming region.
The origin of life in space
The team of scientific researchers identified two cyanide compounds (organic molecules that contain cyanide groups in their structure) derived from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) acenaphthylene (C12H8). PAHs, whose structure is made up of rings of carbon and hydrogen, are found naturally in substances such as coal or petrol. It is believed that These molecules could be one of the pillars on which the origin of life in space would be based.
An exhaustive analysis of the derived rotation constants (transitions between the rotational energy or spin levels of these molecules) allowed the team of scientists to focus on molecules larger than naphthalene (composed of 10 carbon atoms and 8 hydrogen atoms , but smaller). of anthracene and phenanthrene (consisting of 14 carbon atoms and 10 hydrogen atoms respectively, fused into three benzene rings). The process used by the researchers, based on the detection of all the rotational lines of these molecules, guarantees, without a doubt, an unequivocal identification compared to other techniques that use statistical methods.
“These results support a scenario in which PAHs grow in cold clouds from fused carbon rings of five and six carbon atoms and not just six, as previously believed,” underlines José CernicaroCSIC researcher at the Institute of Fundamental Physics (IFF-CSIC).
This team’s molecular identifications were possible thanks to the quantum chemical calculations, the chemical synthesis of these molecules and the spectroscopic study in the laboratory. “In the spectrum, the molecules seemed to respond to the frequencies of molecules with unpaired electrons, which we call radicals, but it was only in appearance, they were just camouflaged, which until now made their detection difficult,” says Cernicaro.
The Quixote project
The results and conclusions of the discovery of these large molecules are part of the Quijote project.whose goal is to reveal the chemical complexity of a cold interstellar cloud and which has led to the discovery of over 90 molecular species in the last four years. One of the most important results of this collaboration was the discovery, using the standard line-by-line detection method, of a large amount of pure hydrocarbons with very high abundances.
We remind you that the Quijote project, led by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), will help to understand the energetic processes that occurred in birth of the Universe.
This project maps the structure of the Milky Way’s magnetic field. It is located at the Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife, made up of two telescopes that have been observing the sky in the microwave domain (10-40Ghz) since it began its observations in 2012.
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