FORMATION OF FULLERENES IN H-CONTAINING PLANETARY NEBULAE
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, C/Via Lactea s/n, 38200 La Laguna (Spain)
- Herschel Science Centre, European Space Astronomy Centre, Research and Scientific Support Department of ESA, Villafranca del Castillo, P.O. Box 50727, E-28080 Madrid (Spain)
- National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
- Departamento de Fisica Teorica C-XI, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid (Spain)
- N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Rabianska 8, 87-100 Torun (Poland)
Hydrogen depleted environments are considered an essential requirement for the formation of fullerenes. The recent detection of C{sub 60} and C{sub 70} fullerenes in what was interpreted as the hydrogen-poor inner region of a post-final helium shell flash planetary nebula (PN) seemed to confirm this picture. Here, we present strong evidence that challenges the current paradigm regarding fullerene formation, showing that it can take place in circumstellar environments containing hydrogen. We report the simultaneous detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and fullerenes toward C-rich and H-containing PNe belonging to environments with very different chemical histories such as our own Galaxy and the Small Magellanic Cloud. We suggest that PAHs and fullerenes may be formed by the photochemical processing of hydrogenated amorphous carbon. These observations suggest that modifications may be needed to our current understanding of the chemistry of large organic molecules as well as the chemical processing in space.
- OSTI ID:
- 21452667
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 724, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/724/1/L39; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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