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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Borsovszky J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8719853 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Borsovszky Jasmin J Nauta Klaas K Jiang Jun J Hansen Christopher S CS McKemmish Laura K LK Field Robert W RW Stanton John F JF Kable Scott H SH Schmidt Timothy W TW
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20211201 52
The dicarbon molecule (C<sub>2</sub>) is found in flames, comets, stars, and the diffuse interstellar medium. In comets, it is responsible for the green color of the coma, but it is not found in the tail. It has long been held to photodissociate in sunlight with a lifetime precluding observation in the tail, but the mechanism was not known. Here we directly observe photodissociation of C<sub>2</sub> From the speed of the recoiling carbon atoms, a bond dissociation energy of 602.804(29) kJ·mol[Fo ...[more]