University of Georgia researchers show component of mothballs is present in deep-sp...(y far the largest part of interstellar c...),Health

Date:9/2/2009

y far the largest part of interstellar clouds, and carbon is another abundant element there. (This is known because scientists can measure their "light signals" or spectra and compare them to such spectra that can be generated in labs.) Still, it opens an entirely new area of study for astrophysicists and chemists who continue to understand the composition of space and the origins of the Universe.

Most people know naphthalene in its earthly crystalline form as C10H8, meaning it has 10 molecules of carbon and eight of hydrogen. The spectrum of this form of naphthalene does not match the UIRs. Duncan and his colleagues, however, had reason to believe that adding an extra proton to naphthalene (from the abundant hydrogen in space), which latches on in an unlikely space collision to give it the formula C10H9 +, might cause just the kind of change in its spectrum to match the UIR pattern.

To see if the component out there in space is protonated naphthalene, they had to first create it in the lab, under conditions near Absolute Zero and then zap it with a laser, turning it into a gas, whose infrared spectrum could then be analyzed. The bad news is that "infrared" refers to radiation whose wavelength is longer than that of visible light and so can't be seen by the naked eye. The good news is that the sophisticated machines in Duncan's lab can both "see" infrared spectrum, and identify what molecule produced it, allowing the distinctive spectrum of protonated naphthalene to be measure for the first time.

It turned out that when Duncan and his team did all this, the spectrum from their laboratory-created protonated naphthalene was almost identical to the spectrum seen in one part of the UIR.

What does it all mean? First, other scientists had found that interstellar dust is responsible for the production of molecular hydrogen from its atoms, which is the principal component of interstellar clouds. Other chemical processes taking place on th
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Contact: Philiip Lee Williams phil@franklin.uga.edu 706-542-8501 University of Georgia Source:Eurekalert

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