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Researchers at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Finger Silicon-Capped Hydrocarbons as Possible Source of Mysterious
"Diffuse Interstellar Bands"
Over the vast, empty reaches of interstellar space,
countless small molecules tumble quietly though the cold vacuum. Forged in the
fusion furnaces of ancient stars and ejected into space when those stars exploded,
these lonely molecules account for a significant amount of all the carbon,
hydrogen, silicon and other atoms in the universe. In fact, some 20 percent of
all the carbon in the universe is thought to exist as some form of interstellar
molecule.