Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T16:03:07.049Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Laboratory Studies of Polyatomic Cometary Molecules and Ions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

At present only four polyatomic molecules or ions have been identified in the spectra of comets and their tails. They are C3, CO2 +, NH2, and H2O+. The first two are linear molecules. The C3 radical gives rise to the well-known 4050 group. It was first obtained in the laboratory in an interrupted discharge through CH4; was definitely identified by Douglas as being due to C3, and was later investigated in considerable detail in absorption in the flash photolysis of CH2N2. The complicated vibrational structure of this spectrum was first understood when it was realized that the bending frequency in the ground state is very low (64 cm-1) and that in the excited state the interaction of the vibrational angular momentum with the electronic angular momentum leads to large splittings (Renner-Teller splittings).

Type
Part II
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1976

References

1. Herzberg, G., Ap. J. 96, 314 (1942).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Douglas, A.E., Ap. J. 114, 466 (1951);CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, A.E., Can. J. Phys. 32, 319 (1954).Google Scholar
3. Gausset, L., Herzberg, G., Lagerqvist, A. and Rosen, B., Ap. J. 142, 45 (1965).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Merer, A.J., Can. J. Phys. 45, 4103 (1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Herzberg, G., “Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure. III. Electronic Spectra and Electronic Structure of Polyatomic Molecules”, D. Van Nostrand Co. Inc., New York, 1966.Google Scholar
6. Mrozowski, S., Phys. Rev. 60, 730 (1941);CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mrozowski, S., Phys. Rev 62, 270 (1942);CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mrozowski, S., Phys. Rev, 72, 682, 691 (1947).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Johns, J.W.C., Can. J. Phys. 42, 1004 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Herzberg, G. and Ramsay, D.A., J. Chem. Phys. 20, 347 (1952).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Dressier, K. and Ramsay, D.A., Phil. Trans. 251A, 553 (1959).Google Scholar
10. Lew, H. and Heiber, I., J. Chem. Phys. 58, 1246 (1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Lew, H., to be published.Google Scholar
12. Herbig, G.H., I.A.U. Circular 2596 (1973).Google Scholar
13. Benvenuti, P. and Wurm, K., Astron. & Astrophys. 31, 121 (1974).Google Scholar
14. Herzberg, G. and Lew, H., Astron. & Astrophys. 31, 123 (1974).Google Scholar
15. Wehinger, P.A., Wyckoff, S., Herbig, G.H., Herzberg, G. and Lew, H., Ap. J. 190, L43 (1974).CrossRefGoogle Scholar