Interstellar nitroxyl

Abstract

ULICH, Hollis and Snyder¹ have reported detection of the molecule nitroxyl, HNO, in the interstellar clouds SgrB2 and NGC2024. The detection is important as an addition to the long list of molecules known to be present in interstellar clouds, but also more particularly because it is the only interstellar molecule so far detected which contains the NO bond. The failure to detect this bond has been an important observational fact with which theoretical formation schemes have had to conform. Ulich et al.¹ also briefly discussed formation processes for HNO. We² have considered a large network of reactions involving the chemistry of interstellar nitrogen, and we are able to estimate the densities of some species which take part in reactions affecting HNO formation and loss and which are reported here.