DETECTION OF E-CYANOMETHANIMINE TOWARD SAGITTARIUS B2(N) IN THE GREEN BANK TELESCOPE PRIMOS SURVEY
- Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
The detection of E-cyanomethanimine (E-HNCHCN) toward Sagittarius B2(N) is made by comparing the publicly available Green Bank Telescope (GBT) PRIMOS survey spectra to laboratory rotational spectra from a reaction product screening experiment. The experiment uses broadband molecular rotational spectroscopy to monitor the reaction products produced in an electric discharge source using a gas mixture of NH{sub 3} and CH{sub 3}CN. Several transition frequency coincidences between the reaction product screening spectra and previously unassigned interstellar rotational transitions in the PRIMOS survey have been assigned to E-cyanomethanimine. A total of eight molecular rotational transitions of this molecule between 9 and 50 GHz are observed with the GBT. E-cyanomethanimine, often called the HCN dimer, is an important molecule in prebiotic chemistry because it is a chemical intermediate in proposed synthetic routes of adenine, one of the two purine nucleobases found in DNA and RNA. New analyses of the rotational spectra of both E-cyanomethanimine and Z-cyanomethanimine that incorporate previous millimeter-wave measurements are also reported.
- OSTI ID:
- 22130862
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 765, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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