The spatial distribution of an aromatic molecule, C6H5CN, in the cold dark cloud TMC-1

Abstract

We present a highly sensitive 2D line survey of TMC-1 obtained with the Yebes 40m radio telescope in the Q-band (31.13-49.53 GHz). These maps cover a region of 320 arcsec x 320 arcsec centred on the position of the QUIJOTE line survey with a spatial sampling of 20 arcsec. The region covering 240 arcsec x 240 arcsec, where a longer integration time was used, shows a homogenous sensitivity of 2-4 mK across the band. We present in this work the first determination of the spatial extent of benzonitrile (C6H5CN), which follows that of cyanopolyynes rather well, but differs significantly from that of the radicals CnH and CnN. We definitively conclude that aromatic species in TMC-1 are formed from chemical reactions involving smaller species in the densest zones of the cloud.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in A&A Letters

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• Discovery of interstellar phenalene ($c$-C${}_{13}$H${}_{10}$): A new piece for the chemical puzzle of PAHs in space
• Doubly substituted isotopologues of HCCCN in TMC-1: Detection of D13CCCN, DC13CCN, DCC13CN, DCCC15N, H13C13CCN, H13CC13CN, HC13C13CN, HCC13C15N, and HC13CC15N
• Rotational excitation of interstellar benzonitrile by helium atoms
• A search for the three isomers of cyano-1,3-butadiene in TMC-1: Implications for bottom-up routes involving 1,3-butadiene
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• Piecing together formic acid isomerism in dark clouds. Detection of cis-formic acid in TMC-1 and astrochemical modeling
• Unmasking the physical information inherent to interstellar spectral line profiles with Machine Learning. I. Application of LTE to HCN and HNC transitions
• Chemistry of Dark Molecular Clouds
• Carbon chain diversity in L1544 and IRAS 16293-2422: an astrochemical pathfinder study for the SKAO
• Synthesis and Spectroscopic Characterization of Interstellar Candidate Ethynyl Thiocyanate: HCCSCN