A study recently published in the journal Science in which scientists from the CSIC have participated has just found the first evidence of a molecule based on argon, a noble gas, in space. The finding has been documented exactly in the Crab Nebula , in the constellation of Taurus, about 6,500 light years from Earth.
The Crab Nebula has a diameter of about 11 light years (about 700,000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun) and is located in the constellation of Taurus, about 6,500 light years from Earth. This nebula was formed after the explosion of a supernova and it is a filamentous and diffuse structure very interesting for scientists.
To conclude that argon hydrile exists there, a molecular ion that contains this noble gas, the researchers used infrared spectrum data provided by the Heschel space observatory. As explained by the CSIC, although noble gas atoms or ions had already been detected, until now none of the molecular compounds based on these noble gas atoms had been found. This fact, as the researchers themselves have indicated, seemed to suggest that these elements require a longer reaction time in space or that the conditions for their formation do not exist.
As José Cernicharo, a CSIC researcher at the Center for Astrobiology according to the laws of Physics and Chemistry explains, “all the elements that we know on Earth are the same that we could find in any other galaxy. However, until now, there was a class of molecules that had not been found, which are those that are made up of the so-called noble gases . These types of molecules had been produced in laboratories, but it was not known whether adequate conditions existed in space for their formation. Now we know that it is and this discovery will allow us to study much more in detail the interaction of supernovae with the environment that surrounds them ”.
