: |
: |
|---|
L. MARGULÈS, R. MOTIYENKO, Laboratoire PhLAM, CNRS UMR 8523, Université de Lille 1, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.; H. MOLLENDAL, Centre for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (CTCC), University of Oslo, P. O. Box 1033, Blindern, NO-0315 Oslo, Norway; J.-C. GUILLEMIN, Sciences Chimiques de Rennes-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes-CNRS, 35700 Rennes, France; AND A. BELLOCHE, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany.
The detection of chiral compounds in the interstellar medium is a great challenge andcould tell us the connection between the chemistry of the ISM and the origin of life on the primitive Earth. Chiral C-3 sugar,
-aminonitriles and cyanohydrins or the corresponding chloro-derivatives are intuitively the simplest chiral candidates consistent with the nature of the heteroatoms observed in the ISM. The aminoacetonitrile being observed in Sgr~B2(N)\footnote[1] A.~Belloche, K.~M.~Menten, C.~Comito, et al., Astron. Astrophys. \textbf482, 179-196 (2008) but not the simplest cyanohydrins and chloacetonitrile, our study was devoted to the 2-aminopropanenitrile, the methyl derivative of aminoacetonitrile and the precursor of alanine (an amino acid) by hydrolysis.
The measurements were made in Oslo and in Lille from 7 to 660 GHz. More than 2000 lines were assigned.
The search in Sgr~B2(N) has been unsuccessful so far. The upper limit currently derived on the column density is comparable to the column density of aminoacetonitrile.
This~work~is~supported~by~the~french Programme National de Physique Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire