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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2017
Recent developments in infrared spectroscopy have made possible the detection of the stretching and bending modes of organic molecules in space. Infrared emission bands of the C-C and C-H stretching and bending modes of aromatic compounds have been widely observed in carbon-rich planetary nebulae, the descendents of carbon stars. Infrared spectra of the transition objects between carbon stars and planetary nebulae, called proto-planetary nebulae, have shown definite signatures of a variety of aliphatic side-groups attached to aromatic rings. This suggests that molecular synthesis is actively ongoing in the circumstellar environment and the chemical nature of these compounds evolve over time scales as short as several hundred years.