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Eight-Carbon Anion Found In Space
Linear anion is the third discovered in space in less than a year
Interstellar chemistry may be more complicated than previously thought. Until recently, astronomers thought that molecules wouldn't be able to retain a negative charge in space amid the UV radiation. But astronomers have found a third anion in less than a year, an octatetraynyl chain of eight carbons, the longest anion found yet.

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Blobrana


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Octatetraynyl
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Astronomers using data from the National Science Foundation's  Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have found the largest negatively-charged molecule yet seen in space. The discovery of the third negatively-charged molecule, called an anion, in less than a year and the size of the latest anion will force a drastic revision of theoretical models of interstellar chemistry, the astronomers say.

"This discovery continues to add to the diversity and complexity that is already seen in the chemistry of interstellar space. It also adds to the number of paths available for making the complex organic molecules and other large molecular species that may be precursors to life in the giant clouds from which stars and planets are formed" - Anthony J. Remijan of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

Two teams of scientists found negatively-charged octatetraynyl, a chain of eight carbon atoms and one hydrogen atom, in the envelope of gas around an old, evolved star and in a cold, dark cloud of molecular gas. In both cases, the molecule had an extra electron, giving it a negative charge. About 130 neutral and about a dozen positively-charged molecules have been discovered in space, but the first negatively-charged molecule was not discovered until late last year. The largest previously-discovered negative ion found in space has six carbon atoms and one hydrogen atom.

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Blobrana


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Astronomers have discovered the first negatively charged molecule in space, identifying it from radio signals that were a mystery until now. While about 130 neutral and 14 positively charged molecules are known to exist in interstellar space, this is the first negative molecule, or anion, to be found.

"We've spotted a rare and exotic species, like the white tiger of space" - astronomer Michael McCarthy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA).

By learning more about the rich broth of chemicals found in interstellar space, astronomers hope to explain how the young Earth converted these basic ingredients into the essential chemicals for life. This new finding helps to advance scientists' understanding of the chemistry of the interstellar medium, and hence the birthplaces of planets.
McCarthy worked with CfA colleagues Carl Gottlieb, Harshal Gupta (also from the Univ. of Texas), and Patrick Thaddeus to identify the molecular anion known as C6H-: a linear chain of six carbon atoms with one hydrogen atom at the end and an "extra" electron. Such molecules were thought to be extremely rare because ultraviolet light that suffuses space easily knocks electrons off molecules. The large size of C6H-, larger than most neutral and all positive molecules known in space, may increase its stability in the harsh cosmic environment.

"The discovery of C6H- resolves a long-standing enigma in astrochemistry: the apparent lack of negatively charged molecules in space" - Patrick Thaddeus.

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Blobrana


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First Molecular Anion Identified In Space
Once thought too fragile to exist in the severe environment of outer space, molecular anions may actually be ubiquitous there. For the first time, researchers have observed in astronomical clouds large amounts of a negatively charged molecule: the hexatriyne anion, or C6H-
Detection of the molecule in interstellar space overturns the belief that radiation would quickly strip an anion of its extra electron, yielding a radical. The finding, reported by Michael C. McCarthy, Patrick Thaddeus, and colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, Mass., also solves a spectral puzzle, identifying C6H- as the source of a mysterious set of rotational lines discovered in a molecular cloud over 10 years ago.

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