NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULES
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Date
1994
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Publisher
Ohio State University
Abstract
Since 1968 interstellar and circumstellar molecules have been discovered at an average rate of nearly 4 per year, and there is no indication at the present time that the rate of discovery is flagging. New very powerful millimeter-wave and submillimeter radio telescopes and interferometers, supported by laboratory investigations of greater and greater sensitivity and sophistication---especially spectroscopic studies of exotic molecules such as radicals, ions, carbon chains, isomers, and carbenes---have largely been responsible for this continuing-progress. Some of the astronomical facilities and new techniques will be described, and a sample of recent astronomical and laboratory discoveries presented. Linear carbon chains continue to be a dominant structural theme in interstellar chemistry, and recent discoveries include highly unfamiliar carbon chain radicals, carbenes, isomers, and chains with terminal metal atoms.
Description
Author Institution: Division of Applied Sciences and Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University