P. Bryan Changala

Nov 4, 2024 | nature.com | P. Bryan Changala |Edwin A. Bergin |Eric Herbst |Ryan A. Loomis |Ilsa R. Cooke |Andrew Lipnicky

AbstractPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most widespread compounds in the universe, accounting for up to ~25% of all interstellar carbon. Since most unsubstituted PAHs do not possess permanent electric dipole moments, they are invisible to radio astronomy. Constraining their abundances relies on the detection of polar chemical proxies, such as aromatic nitriles. Here we report the detection of 2-cyanopyrene and 4-cyanopyrene, isomers of the recently detected 1-cyanopyrene.

Oct 24, 2024 | science.org | Alex Byrne |Manojit M. Swamynathan |P. Bryan Changala |Ilsa R. Cooke

AbstractPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic molecules containing adjacent aromatic rings. Infrared emission bands show that PAHs are abundant in space, but only a few specific PAHs have been detected in the interstellar medium. We detect 1-cyanopyrene, a cyano-substituted derivative of the related four-ring PAH pyrene, in radio observations of the dense cloud TMC-1 using the Green Bank Telescope.