pyrene tagged posts

A team led by researchers at MIT has discovered that a distant interstellar cloud contains an abundance of pyrene, a type of large, carbon-containing molecule known as a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH).

The discovery of pyrene in this far-off cloud, which is similar to the collection of dust and gas that eventually became our own solar system, suggests that pyrene may have been the source of much of the carbon in our solar system...

An asteroid belt orbits a star in this artist’s rendering. In a new study, experiments at Berkeley Lab explored possible chemical pathways that could form complex hydrocarbons — like those found in some meteorite samples – in space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Experiments reveal how a hydrocarbon called pyrene could form near stars. Scientists have used lab experiments to retrace the chemical steps leading to the creation of complex hydrocarbons in space, showing pathways to forming 2D carbon-based nanostructures in a mix of heated gases...