Geballe T R, Oka T
Joint Astronomy Centre, University Park, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA.
Nature. 1996 Nov 28;384(6607):334-5. doi: 10.1038/384334a0.
The H3+ ion is widely believed to play an important role in interstellar chemistry, by initiating the chains of reactions that lead to the production of many of the complex molecular species observed in the interstellar medium. The presence of H3+ in the interstellar medium was first suggested in 1961, and its infrared spectrum was measured in the laboratory in 1980. But attempts to detect it in interstellar space have hitherto proved unsuccessful. Here we report the detection of H3+ absorption in the spectra of two molecular clouds. Although the present results do not permit an accurate determination of the H3+ abundances, these ions appear nevertheless to be present in sufficient quantities to drive much of the chemistry in molecular clouds. It should soon be possible to obtain more accurate measurements, and thus better quantify the role of ion-neutral reactions in the chemical evolution of molecular clouds.
人们普遍认为，H3+离子在星际化学中起着重要作用，它引发了一系列反应，这些反应导致了在星际介质中观测到的许多复杂分子物种的产生。星际介质中H3+的存在最早于1961年被提出，其红外光谱于1980年在实验室中被测量。但迄今为止，在星际空间中探测到它的尝试均未成功。在此，我们报告在两个分子云的光谱中检测到了H3+吸收。尽管目前的结果无法精确测定H3+的丰度，但这些离子似乎仍大量存在，足以推动分子云中的大部分化学反应。很快就有可能获得更精确的测量结果，从而更好地量化离子-中性反应在分子云化学演化中的作用。
