Transcription

1 Page 1 of 5 Join... and win $25,000! Send this site to a friend and win $5,000! Site Menu: Extremely Rare Molecule Found in Interstellar Space May 29, :30 CDT Your Personal Links: Click here to visit your home page and other personal links Community Features: Marketplace Shop for Everything Under the Sun at the Marketplace! Earn money while you shop! Image of the Day Member Gallery Virtual Cards Ask a Scientist Ask an Astronomer Member Testimonials Live Chat Message Boards Weather Send to a Friend! MECA - May Everyone Connect Always Launch your "Cosmic Messenger" and talk to the world! thought. PASADENA, Calif.-A rare type of ammonia that includes three atoms of deuterium has been found in a molecular cloud about 1,000 light-years from Earth. The comparative ease of detecting the molecules means there are more of them than previously In a study appearing in the May 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, an international team of astronomers reports on the contents of a molecular cloud in the direction of the constellation Perseus. The observations were done with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Above image: IRAS image of the vicinity of the Barnard 1 cloud in the constellation Perseus, where triply deuterated ammonia was detected at the CSO. Click image to enlarge. The molecule in question is called "triply deuterated ammonia," meaning that each molecule is composed of a nitrogen atom and three deuterium atoms (heavy hydrogen), rather than the usual single nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms found in the typical bottle of household ammonia. While not unknown on Earth, the molecules, until recently, were thought by experts to be quite rare-so rare, in fact, that the substance was considered too sparse to even be detectable from Earth.

2 Page 2 of 5 Special Features: CosmiFiction Today's Story: Toad by Burk Stone Your Sky Tonight Locate the stars where you live ISS Updates ISS Mission status reports, imagery and more Shuttle Missions Updates and imagery on current missions Future Missions Data and photos outlining upcoming missions Farewell Mir Mir Image Gallery and More! Learn More: in the Classroom Cosmikids A Great Place for Cosmic Kids! Solar System Tours Interactive Tours of our Solar System as well as selected Lunar Tours Reference Library More than 900 pages of reference material! Image Galleries Over 2000 images! Search Tools: Go! Search WWW Search Database Yellow Pages People Search Business Search But now that scientists have detected triply deuterated ammonia in the interstellar medium, they're still wondering why they were able to do so at all, says Tom Phillips, a physics professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), director of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, and leader of the Caltech team. No other molecules containing three deuterium atoms have ever been detected in interstellar space. "From simple statistics alone, the chances for all three hydrogen atoms in an ammonia molecule to be replaced by the very rare deuterium atoms are one in a million billion," Phillips explains. "This is like buying a $1 state lottery ticket two weeks in a row and winning a $30 million jackpot both weeks. Astronomical odds indeed!" Right image: The 10.4-meter Leighton telescope of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Click image to enlarge. As for the reasons the molecules would exist in the first place, says Dariusz Lis, a senior research associate in physics at Caltech and lead author of the paper, the frigid conditions of the dense interstellar medium allow the deuterium replacement of the hydrogen atoms to take place. At higher temperatures, there would be a back-and-forth exchange of the deuterium atoms between the ammonia molecules and the hydrogen molecules also present in the interstellar medium. But at the frosty 10-to-20 degrees above absolute zero that prevails in the clouds, the deuterium atoms prefer to settle into the ammonia molecules and Shopping:

3 Page 3 of 5 Marketplace Shop for Everything Under the Sun at the Marketplace! CV2K Mission Kits Auction Affiliate Sites: Cosmic Voyage 2000 Brother Earth SpaceDev seti@home Planetary Society MECA - May Everyone Connect Always Launch your "Cosmic Messenger" and talk to the world! stay there. The study is important because it furthers the understanding of the chemistry of the cold, dense interstellar medium and the way molecules transfer from grains of dust to the gas phase, Phillips explains. The researchers think the triply deuterated ammonia was probably kicked off the dust grains by the energy of a young star forming nearby, thus returning to the gas state, where it could be detected by the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. Left image: Spectrum of triply deuterated ammonia toward the Barnard 1 cloud observed with the CSO. Click image to enlarge. The study was made possible because of the special capabilities of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, a meter telescope constructed and operated by Caltech with funding from the National Science Foundation. The telescope is fitted with the world's most sensitive submillimeter detectors, making it ideal for seeking out the diffused gases and molecules crucial to understanding star formation. In addition to the Caltech observers, the team also included international members from France led by Evelyne Roueff and Maryvonne Gerin from the Observatoire de Paris, funded by the French CNRS, and astronomers from the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie in Germany. Source: Caltech: Robert Tindol this story to a friend Post your thoughts on this story Back to Today's Headlines

4 Page 4 of 5 Eddington Mission to Look Inside the Stars Space Station 'Photo Laboratory' Ready for Launch ESA Selects New Earth-Observation Missions Daily Mars Image -- Becquerel Crater Deposit ISS Crew to End Record Mission this Week Youngest Radio Pulsar Found ESA Axes Venus Exploration Mission Japanese Mars Probe Silenced by Solar Flare New Picture Captured of the Early Universe Brilliant Venus and Giant Jupiter are Rushing Toward a Close Encounter ESA's Rosetta Breaks the Sound Barrier SPOT 5 is Looking Good Daily Mars Image -- Northern Arabia Etched Terrain Europa's Ocean May Be Too Deep Below Ice to Reach Glowing Remnant from a Star-Shattering Explosion Nearby White Dwarf Could Eventually Destroy Life on Earth Shuttleworth's Science Endangered by Russian Red Tape Daily Mars Image -- Tharsis Rise Graben SETI Thinks Europa Has the Right Stuff NASA Forges Ahead with Reusable Launch Technology ESA Provides Unusual Views of the Sun China Training 14 Pilots for Moon -- But are They Really? Rarely Seen "Southern Lights" Captured Astronomers Determine Star's Age Using Density Brown Dwarf Found Orbiting Star at Earth-like Distance Daily Mars Image -- Coprates Chasma Strange, Ultracool Object Found in Orion Studying Martian Dust Devils Here on Earth NASA's Space Traffic Controller Arianespace on the Verge of Bankruptcy NASA Tracks Prehistoric Human Footpaths NASA Sends Children on Odyssey of the Mind Most Galaxies Surrounded by Invisible Dwarf Galaxies Daily Mars Image -- Arsia Mons Meteor Showers Onboard the Space Station China Plans to Build Moon Base ESA's Artemis Satellite Moves into Proper Orbit NASA Could Provide Severe Icing Warnings to Pilots Space Shuttle Endeavour to Launch May 30 Past Weeks' News Archives - Archives of past weeks' Daily Selected News Stories.

5 Page 5 of 5 View Live NASA Space Cams - Courtesy of Kennedy Space Center Type your address in the box and click "Subscribe" HTML Newsletter Daily Weekly Text Newsletter Daily Weekly Subscribe Send this site to 5 Friends and be automatically entered to win $ ! Your Name: Your Friend's Name: Friend's Submit Reset com. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement and Terms of Service All other copyrights remain property of their respective owners.