image: This is a widefield image of the Taurus Molecular Cloud and surrounding sky, taken from Charlottesville, VA on January 2, 2018. The molecular cloud is the dark, obscured region in the upper left of the image, where the gas and dust are blocking the stars behind the cloud from view. To the right of the image is the Pleiades cluster, and in the bottom left is the star Aldebaran. The image was captured using a DLSR camera, 50 mm lens, and a basic tracking mount. A total of about 50 minutes of exposures were added to create the final image. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 12 January 2018 issue of <i>Science</i>, published by AAAS. The paper, by B.A. McGuire at National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, VA, and colleagues was titled, "Detection of the aromatic molecule benzonitrile (c-C6H5CN) in the interstellar medium." view more
Credit: Brett A. McGuire
科学家们在太空中发现了一种特别的有机分子：苯甲腈。这一发现标志着人们第一次用无线电频谱法在太空中发现了一种特别的芳香族分子。含有六角形碳原子环的有机分子被称作芳香族分子，它们大量存在于整个宇宙之中。天王学家之所以知道这一情况是因为芳香族分子会以红外线发射一组特征性的射线，它们在许多太空环境中都能被观察到。然而，要确认所存在的是哪些芳香族分子则非常困难，且常常需要用无线电频谱法进行测定。检测弱无线电发射方法的改进可帮助科学家们更好地观察宇宙，Brett A. McGuire等正是用这些方法通过对金牛座分子云1（TMC-1）进行无线电勘测而发现了苯甲腈的特征。为了测定它们的身份，研究人员在实验室中开展了周密的试验来准确地测量该分子不同的旋转跃迁。通过用另一个射电望远镜将他们的实验数据与对TMC-1的定向观测进行比较，他们便能看到苯甲腈的9种不同的旋转跃迁，从而确认了该检测结果。Christine Joblin 和 José Cernicharo在相关的《视角》中对这些发现的意义进行了讨论。
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Journal
Science