Overview
- The molecule, 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C6H6S), is a 13-atom, six-membered ring compound identified as the most complex sulfur species detected in interstellar space.
- Signals were found in molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027 about 27,000 light-years from Earth, a cold region that has not yet formed stars.
- The team synthesized C6H6S via a 1,000-volt discharge of thiophenol and measured its rotational spectrum with a custom spectrometer accurate to more than seven significant digits.
- This is reported as the first unambiguous detection of a complex cyclic sulfur molecule in space, narrowing a long-standing gap between interstellar chemistry and sulfur-rich compounds in comets and meteorites.
- The peer-reviewed results, published in Nature Astronomy, point to pre-stellar origins for complex sulfur chemistry and motivate targeted searches for additional sulfur-bearing species, with their prevalence still uncertain.