{"id":75161,"date":"2018-01-11T14:22:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T22:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/astronomers-detect-almond-scented-molecule-that-will-help-solve-interstellar-radiation-mystery"},"modified":"2018-01-16T17:03:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T01:03:38","slug":"astronomers-detect-almond-scented-molecule-that-will-help-solve-interstellar-radiation-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/astronomers-detect-almond-scented-molecule-that-will-help-solve-interstellar-radiation-mystery","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers Detect Almond-Scented Molecule That Will Help Solve Interstellar Radiation Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There\u2019s an unidentified source of infrared throughout the universe. By looking at the specific wavelengths of the light, scientists think that come from carbon\u2014but not just any carbon, a special kind where the atoms are arranged in multiple hexagonal rings. No one has been able to spot one of these multi-ring \u201cpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,\u201d or PAHs in space\u2014even though the infrared emissions imply that these PAHs should make up 10 percent of the universe\u2019s carbon. Now, scientists have found a new hint.<\/p>\n

A team of researchers in the United States and Russia are now reporting spotting a special single-carbon-ring-containing molecule, called benzonitrile, with a radio telescope in a part of space called the Taurus Molecular Cloud-1. Benzonitrile only has one hexagonal ring of carbon, so it\u2019s not a poly <\/em>cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon itself. But it could be a potential precursor and could help explain the mysterious radiation.<\/p>\n

Before you even ask, yes, this \u201caromatic\u201d benzonitrile molecule has a smell. \u201cI can tell you from personal experience it smells like almonds,\u201d study first author Brett McGuire from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory told Gizmodo, who has encountered the molecule in the lab.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an unidentified source of infrared throughout the universe. By looking at the specific wavelengths of the light, scientists think that come from carbon\u2014but not just any carbon, a special kind where the atoms are arranged in multiple hexagonal rings. No one has been able to spot one of these multi-ring \u201cpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,\u201d or [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75161","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\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75269,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75161\/revisions\/75269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}