Detection of the cyanomidyl radical (HNCN): a new interstellar species with the NCN backbone

ABSTRACT We report here the first detection in the interstellar medium of the cyanomidyl radical (HNCN). Using the Yebes 40m and the IRAM 30m telescopes, we have targeted the doublets of the N = 2–1, 4–3, 5–4, 6–5, and 7–6 transitions of HNCN towards the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. We have detect...

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Veröffentlicht in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters 2021-09, Vol.506 (1), p.L79-L84
Hauptverfasser: Rivilla, V M, Jiménez-Serra, I, García de la Concepción, J, Martín-Pintado, J, Colzi, L, Rodríguez-Almeida, L F, Tercero, B, Rico-Villas, F, Zeng, S, Martín, S, Requena-Torres, M A, de Vicente, P
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:ABSTRACT We report here the first detection in the interstellar medium of the cyanomidyl radical (HNCN). Using the Yebes 40m and the IRAM 30m telescopes, we have targeted the doublets of the N = 2–1, 4–3, 5–4, 6–5, and 7–6 transitions of HNCN towards the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. We have detected three unblended lines of HNCN, these are the N = 6–5 doublet and one line of the N = 4–3 transition. Additionally, we present one line of the N = 5–4 transition partially blended with emission from other species. The local thermodynamic equilibrium best fit to the data gives a molecular abundance of (0.91 ± 0.05) × 10−10 with respect to H2. The relatively low abundance of this species in G+0.693-0.027 and its high reactivity suggest that HNCN is possibly produced by gas-phase chemistry. Our work shows that this highly reactive molecule is present in interstellar space, and thus it represents a plausible precursor of larger prebiotic molecules with the nitrogen–carbon–nitrogen backbone such as cyanamide (NH2CN), carbodiimide (HNCNH), and formamidine (NH2CHNH).
ISSN:1745-3925
1745-3933
DOI:10.1093/mnrasl/slab074