{"id":229727,"date":"2026-01-24T05:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/astrophysicists-discover-largest-sulfur-containing-molecular-compound-in-space"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:16:07","slug":"astrophysicists-discover-largest-sulfur-containing-molecular-compound-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/astrophysicists-discover-largest-sulfur-containing-molecular-compound-in-space","title":{"rendered":"Astrophysicists discover largest sulfur-containing molecular compound in space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/astrophysicists-discover-largest-sulfur-containing-molecular-compound-in-space.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in collaboration with astrophysicists from the Centro de Astrobiolog\u00eda (CAB), CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space: 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C\u2086H\u2086S). They made this breakthrough by combining laboratory experiments with astronomical observations. The molecule resides in the molecular cloud G+0.693\u20130.027, about 27,000 light-years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way.<\/p>\n<p>With a stable six-membered ring and a total of 13 atoms, it far exceeds the size of all previously detected sulfur-containing compounds in space. The study is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-025-02749-7\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in collaboration with astrophysicists from the Centro de Astrobiolog\u00eda (CAB), CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever found in space: 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C\u2086H\u2086S). They made this breakthrough by combining laboratory experiments with astronomical observations. The molecule resides in the molecular cloud G+0.693\u20130.027, about 27,000 light-years [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}