C. Cabezas, M. Agúndez, Y. Endo, B. Tercero, Y.-P. Lee, N. Marcelino, P. de Vicente, and J. Cernicharo
published the
Laboratory and astronomical discovery of cyanothioketene, NCCHCS, in the cold starless core TMC-1
Astron. Astrophys. 686, (2024), Art. No. L3.
The molecule, which is also known as cyanoethenthione, was identified in the course of a line survey carried out with the Yebes 40 m dishe. 23 a-type transitions with 8 ≤ J ≤ 14 and K_a ≤ 2 were detected between 31 and 50 GHz with good to reasnable signal-to-noise ratios. The thioketene to cyanothioketene ratio is as low as ~6.5, while the ratio of the more abundant thioformaldehyde to cyanothioformaldehyde is ~28. Cyanoketene was not detected, and the ketene to cyanoketene is > ~430. Judging by the formaldehyde to cyanoformaldehyde ratio of ~1400, the observation of cyanoketene may require only a modest increase in sensitivity.

Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 05, 2024