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J. M. Hollis, A. J. Remijan (NASA's GSFC), P. R. Jewell (NRAO), F. J. Lovas (NIST)
The 3-carbon keto-ring cyclopropenone (c-H2C3O) has been detected largely in absorption with the 100-m Green Bank Telescope (GBT) toward the star-forming region Sagittarius B2(N) by means of a number of rotational transitions between energy levels that have energies less than 10 K. Previous negative results from searches for interstellar c-H2C3O by other investigators attempting to detect rotational transitions that have energy levels ~10 K or greater indicate no significant hot core component. Thus, we conclude that only the low energy levels of c-H2C3O are populated because the molecule state temperature is low, suggesting that c-H2C3O resides in a star-forming core halo region that has a widespread arcminute spatial scale. Toward Sagittarius B2(N), the GBT was also used to observe the previously-reported, spatially-ubiquitous, 3-carbon ring cyclopropenylidene (c-C3H2) which has a divalent carbon that makes it highly reactive in the laboratory. The presence of both c-C3H2 and c-H2C3O toward Sagittarius B2(N) suggests that gas-phase oxygen addition may account for the synthesis of c-H2C3O from c-C3H2. We also searched for but did not detect the three-carbon sugar glyceraldehyde (CH2OHCHOHCHO) .
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.