On Hydroxypropenal in Space
A. Coutens, J.-C. Loison, A. Boulanger, E. Caux, H. S. P. Müller, V. Wakelam, S. Manigand, and J. K. Jørgensen
reported on
The ALMA-PILS survey: First Tentative Detection of 3-Hydroxypropenal (HOCHCHCHO) in the Interstellar Medium and Chemical Modeling of the C<sub>3</sub>H<sub>4</sub>O<sub>2</sub> Isomers
Astron. Astrophys. 660 (2022), Art. No. L6.
3-Hydroxypropenal is the enol form of malonaldehyde. This enolic form is more stable than the dial because of intermolecular hydogen bonding. The molecule was identified through 11 lines in Band 7 corresponding to 19 b-type rotational transitions. Some of these are fully or partially blended. Two additional lines were clearly detected in Band 6 data. Rotation-tunneling transitions of a-type symmetry may be observable for somewhat higher excitation temperatures. However, the rest frequencies of stronger ones with low values of Ka are so uncertain that they can not be identified unambiguously. Its fractional abundance with respect to methanol is ~10−4.
Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 04, 2022