G. Wenzel, I. R. Cooke, P. B. Changala, E. A. Bergin, S. Zhang, A. M. Burkhardt, A. N. Byrne, S. B. Charnley, M. A. Cordiner, M. Duffy, Z. T. P. Fried, H. Gupta, M. S. Holdren, A. Lipnicky, R. A. Loomis, H. T. Shay, C. N. Shingledecker, M. A. Siebert, D. A. Stewart, R. H. J. Willis, C. Xue, A. J. Remijan, A. E. Wendlandt, M. C. McCarthy, and B. A. McGuire
reported on the
Detection of Interstellar 1-Cyanopyrene: A Four-ring Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
Science 386, 810−813 (2024).
The molecule was identified in the course of the GOTHAM survey of TMC-1 casrried out with the 100 m GBT dish. Several oblate paired a-type rotational transitions with 31 ≤ J ≤ 37 and K_c close to J. Each pair of lines is close to the noise limit, but stacking achieves a S/N of about 7. The derived column density is, for example, about twice that of each of 1- and 2-cyanonaphtalene and only slightly less than that of benzonitrile.

The CfA issued a press release.

Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 11, 2024