3) Method of observation (i.e.

Ground based/space based, which telescope, range of

electromagnetic radiation that the telescope looked into etc).

On the Detection of Pentatetraenediylidene, C5, in Space

The pure carbon chain molecule pentatetraenediylidene, C5, has been detected in the
circumstellar envelope of the famous carbon star CW Leo, aka IRC +10216, by
P. F. Bernath, K. H. Hinkle, and J. J. Keady, before it was actually detected in the laboratory.
Broadening occurs for our C5 observations and a maximum absorption depth of 1% is seen. It
was only possible to calculate the column density of C5 in IRC +10216 by using a synthetic
spectrum to remove the telluric lines. C5 has previously been observed with a column density of
9.0 1013 cm2 in the same spectral region of IRC +10216 by Bernath et al. (1989) using a
high-resolution Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (0.01 cm1 resolution); a maximum
absorption depth of 3% was observed. The calculated value of 1.3 1013 cm2 is
approximately 15% of the value calculated by Bernath et al. (1989), however Botschwina &
Sebald (1989) suggest that the Bernath et al. (1989) column density was an overestimate due to
the transition dipole moment that was used. The C5 transition dipole moment for this study was
taken from Botschwina & Sebald (1989) and the column density presented here is within 25% of
their estimated value of 5.0 1013 cm2 . The C5 absorption lines for the remaining program
stars (excluding IRC +10216) are at the noise limit when synthetic reference spectra are used.
Therefore, it was only possible to provide an estimate of the upper limit for C5 in these objects.

4) A discussion of the formation mechanism of the molecule in interstellar space etc.

The molecule C5 has already been identified in the infrared spectrum of IRC110216 (Bernath,
Hinkle & Keady 1989); this proves that this species is present in the circumstellar envelope and
thus can be observed in translucent interstellar clouds as well. The recent paper by Motylewski et
al. (1999) describes the gas-phase laboratory spectrum of the C5 molecule. It consists of four
features but two of them, situated near 4975 and 5109 A , should be especially strong. The
features are expected to be rather narrow and thus high-resolution spectral observations are
highly desirable. Bernath et al. (1989) estimated the column density of C5 to be a factor of 11
less than that of C3 in the circumstellar envelope of IRC110216. If a similar ratio can be
expected in interstellar translucent clouds, the possible C5 features should be very weak which
requires a very high signal-to-noise ratio despite the reasonably high resolution of the spectra.