===== Detections of Phosphorus Nitride, PN, in Space ===== B. E. Turner and J. Bally\\ reported on the\\ **[[https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987ApJ...321L..81Z|Detection of Interstellar PN – The First Identified Phosphorus Compound in the Interstellar Medium]]**\\ //Astron. Astrophys.// **321**, L75–L79 (1987).\\ The //J// = 2 – 1, 3 – 2, and 5 – 4; transitions were detected with the NRAO 12 m and BTL 7 m telescopes in emission near 94.0, 141.0, and 234.9 GHz. The lines were detected in the high-mass star-forming regions Orion KL, W51M, and Sgr B2. L. M. Ziurys, S. N. Milam, A. J. Apponi, and N. J. Woolf\\ reported on\\ **[[https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05905|Chemical Complexity in the Winds of the Oxygen-rich Supergiant Star VY Canis Majoris]]**\\ //Nature// **447**, 1094–1097 (2007).\\ PN was identified in the course of a molecular line survey with the ARO 12 m and the SMT 10 m telescopes, covering large sections of the 75–270 GHz region. S. N. Milam, D. T. Halfen, E. D. Tenenbaum, A. J. Apponi, N. J. Woolf, and L. M. Ziurys\\ reported on\\ **[[https://doi.org/10.1086/589135|Constraining Phosphorus Chemistry in Carbon- and Oxygen-Rich Circumstellar Envelopes: Observations of PN, HCP, and CP]]**\\ //Astrophys. J.// **684**, 618–625 (2008).\\ Several lines of PN were detected with the same instruments as above toward the envelopes of the carbon-rich late-type stars V1610 Cygni (aka CRL 2688) and CW Leonis (aka IRC +10216). PN was also detected around a (low-mass) class 0 proto-star:\\ **[[https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/63.5.L37|Detection of Phosphorus Nitride in the Lynds 1157 B1 Shocked Region]]**\\ by T. Yamaguchi, S. Takano, N. Sakai, T. Sakai, S.-Y. Liu, Y.-N. Su, N. Hirano, S. Takakuwa, Y. Aikawa, H. Nomura, and S. Yamamoto,\\ //Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan// **63**, L37–L41 (2011).\\ The //J// = 2 – 1 transition near 94.0 GHz was detected in emission with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope in the course of a molecular line survey covering the 3 mm region. ---- Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 08; 2016 ----