Astronomy - February 2014

ASTRONEWS C^70 carbon atoms, is the largest fullerene, which contains 70

molecule found in space so far.

FAST

FACT

2 atoms

Carbon monoxide

3 atoms

H 3 +

4 atoms

Formaldehyde

5 atoms

Methane

6 atoms

Formamide

8 atoms

Acetic acid

(vinegar)

10 atoms

Acetone

9 atoms

Ethanol

Number of types of different molecules detected in space

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

11 atoms

Cyanooctatetrayne

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 15

COSMIC

MOLECULES

ALMA watches black hole in action

Conventional wisdom holds

that the disks that form plan-

ets run out of gas after 10

million years, by which point

the growing star and its gas

giants have siphoned it out

of the system. Astronomers

have discovered, however,

that the system HD 21997,

235 light-years away and just

30 million years old, has

clung to its gas far longer

than that. Even more surpris-

ingly, they saw this gas min-

gling with the pulverized

rock that results when plane-

tesimals smash into each

other. The simultaneous pres-

ence of gas and dusty debris

is a previously unobserved

stage of solar-system forma-

tion and evolution.

Astronomers used the

Atacama Large Millimeter/

submillimeter Array (ALMA)

and the Herschel Space

Observatory — which see in

radio and infrared light,

respectively — to observe

both the dust and gas. The

gas, which scientists did not

expect, is some 30 to 60

times Earth’s mass. The

results appeared in the

October 20 issue of The

Astrophysical Journal and

the November 10 issue of

The Astrophysical Journal

Letters. — S. S.

45°

The angle at which the inner plan-

ets in the Kepler-56 system orbit

their host star, reported researchers

in the October 18 issue of Science.

Planets

are born in

hybrid disks

DUST BUSTER. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

observed dust (left) and gas (right) in the HD 21997 solar system,

where planets are still forming. Scientists previously believed stars

and giant planets collected all the gas before the system was filled

with collision dust, but this hybrid disk shows that not to be the case.

MOLECULAR MASHUPS. Space is

full of complicated molecules. Scientists

have discovered structures composed

of up to 70 atoms. But the more compli-

cated a compound is, the less of it exists

in interstellar space. For example, scien-

tists have found 39 different molecules

made of two atoms — like carbon

monoxide — in space, while they have

only found three types of 11-atom com-

pounds — like cyanooctatetrayne.

ASTRONOMY: SArAH ScoLeS AnD roen KeLLy; DATA FroM

UniverSiTäT zU KöLn

JETTISONING JETS. Scientists used the Atacama Large Millimeter/

submillimeter Array (ALMA) to spy on the center of nGc 1433, seen

here in visible (blue) and radio (orange/red) light. The black hole hiding

there is quiet and calm, but ALMA’s sharp eye revealed that the object

is getting some action, according to a paper in the october Astronomy

& Astrophysics. The molecular gas around the galactic center has woven

itself into a spiral that feeds into the black hole, which then shoots jets

of material outward. nGc 1433’s puny jets are just 150 light-years long,

1,000 times smaller than those of active galaxies. — S. S.

ALMA (eSo/nAoJ/nrAo)/nASA/eSA/F. coMBeS

Á. KóSpÁL (eSA)/A. Moór (KonKoLy oBServATory)