The chemistry of molecular anions in circumstellar sources
- LUTH, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon (France)
- Departamento de Astrofísica, CAB, CSIC-INTA, Ctra. de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4, 28850 Madrid (Spain)
- Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, 300 rue de la Piscine, 38406 Saint Martin d'Héres (France)
The detection of negatively charged molecules in the interstellar and circumstellar medium in the past four years has been one of the most impacting surprises in the area of molecular astrophysics. It has motivated the interest of astronomers, physicists, and chemists on the study of the spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, and prevalence of molecular anions in the different astronomical regions. Up to six different molecular anions have been discovered in space to date, the last one being the small ion CN{sup −}, which has been observed in the envelope of the carbon star IRC +10216 and which contrary to the other larger anions is not formed by electron attachment to CN, but through reactions of large carbon anions with nitrogen atoms. Here we briefly review the current status of our knowledge of the chemistry of molecular anions in space, with particular emphasis on the circumstellar source IRC +10216, which to date is the astronomical source harboring the largest variety of anions.
- OSTI ID:
- 22390912
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1642, Issue 1; Conference: ICCMSE-2010: International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering 2010, Kos (Greece), 3-8 Oct 2010; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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