Isocyanogen, CNCN, is a higher energy isomer of cyanogen, NCCN.
M. Agúndez, N. Marcelino, and J. Cernicharo,
reported on the
Discovery of Interstellar Isocyanogen (CNCN): Further Evidence that Dicyanopolyynes Are Abundant in Space
Astrophys. J. 861, Art. No. L22 (2018).
The IRAM 30 m telescope was used to detect three transitions out of four transitions with J = 8 – 7 near 82.8 GHz to J = 11 – 10 near 113.8 GHz toward the the young stellar object IRAS 18148–0440 in the L483 dense core. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios were reasonable to good for the first three transitions, not sufficient for the last. All four transitions were also seen with modest S/N toward the cyanopolyyne peak of TMC-1; stacking of all four transitions yielded a reasonable signal. Hence, the detection was viewed as secure toward L483 and as tentative toward TMC-1. CNCN is more abundant than HNCCN⁺ by factors of about 40 and 10 in L483 and TMC-1, respectively.

Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 07, 2018