Chemical complexity in the winds of the oxygen-rich supergiant star VY Canis Majoris

L. M. Ziurys (), S. N. Milam, A. J. Apponi and N. J. Woolf
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L. M. Ziurys: NASA Astrobiology Institute,
S. N. Milam: NASA Astrobiology Institute,
A. J. Apponi: NASA Astrobiology Institute,
N. J. Woolf: NASA Astrobiology Institute,

Nature, 2007, vol. 447, issue 7148, 1094-1097

Abstract: Things got complicated... Organic molecules are widely distributed in the Universe, yet with oxygen so much more abundant than carbon, shouldn't most of the carbon have been snapped up and incorporated into carbon monoxide? The new generation of receivers for millimetre-wave radio astronomy is beginning to reveal some of the chemical complexity that ensured that this did not happen. Observations of the red supergiant star VY Canis Majoris show that in the limited environment of the outflow from an oxygen-rich star, only half the carbon is contained in CO. The remaining half is in HCN, a molecule fundamental to organic synthesis, and other C-bearing species, demonstrating an active carbon chemistry.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05905

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