Exotic Carbon and Silicon Molecules of Astronomical Interest
Abstract
Significant advances have been made in thelaboratory detection of postulated astronomical molecules during the past five years. In our laboratory alone, more than 100 carbon chains,carbon ring-chains, and exotic rings containing silicon have been identified for the first time by the application of Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy to supersonic molecular beams. Almost all of these unfamiliar molecules are good candidates for detection in space, and about 10% have in fact already been detected with large radio telescopes, including the largest astronomical molecule HC_11N, and the large rhomboidal ring, SiC_3. With powerful new radio facilities planned or under construction, it would be surprising if many more could not eventually be found. Our laboratory techniques have advanced to the point that any molecule which now can be detected in space in the radio band can probably be detected with our present laboratory instrumentation, or with some reasonable refinement of it. This talk will provide a broad overview of our recent work, illustrating with a few specific examples the power of our laboratory techniques, and how these techniques can be applied to challenging problems in astronomical spectroscopy.
- Publication:
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APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DMP.F1003M