Detection of Ethynyloxomethylium, HC3O+, in the ISM

J. Cernicharo, N. Marcelino, M. Agúndez, Y. Endo, C. Cabezas, C. Bermúdez, B. Tercero, and P. de Vicente
reported on the
Discovery of HC<sub>3</sub>O<sup>+</sup> in Space: The Chemistry of O-bearing Species in TMC-1
Astron Astrophys. 642, Art. No. L17 (2020).
Two transitions, J“ = 3 and 4 near 35.7 and 44.6 GHz, of a new, unknown molecule were detected in the course of a molecular line survey of the prototypical cold dark molecular cloud TMC-1 carried out with the Yebes 40 m radio telescope. Subsequently, two additional transitions, J” = 9 and 10 near 89.2 and 98.1 GHz, were identified in data from an older IRAM 30 m line survey of TMC-1. Laboratory measurements confirmed the identity of the molecule as ethynyloxomethylium.

The abundance ratio of C3O to HC3O+ is ~7, extremely low, whereas astrochemical modeling with protonation of C3O as dominant source of HC3O+ yielded a ratio of ~500 at steady state. The abundance ratio of C3S to HC3S+ should be even lower because of the larger proton affinity of C3S compared to C3O. However, HC3S+ was not detected, and the C3S to HC3S+ ratio was evaluated to be larger than 25, strongly suggesting that protonation of C3O is not an important source of HC3O+ in TMC-1.


Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller 10, 2020