September 2015

Hydroxyl Cation

The detection of the hydroxyl cation (OH+) was reported in 2010 by Wyrowski et al. toward the star-forming Sgr B2(M) region, the "main" part of the cloud. The identification was made using the 12-m Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) telescope at Llano de Chajnantor in Chile at 15,700 ft. It was subsequently detected toward the HII region G10.6-0.4 by Gerin et al., toward various translucent clouds by Krełowski et al., toward diffuse cloud W49A by Neufeld et al., and toward the extragalactic sources NGC 4418 and Arp 220 by González-Alfonso et al.

The hydroxyl cation is unstable and very reactive, in part because it is a diradical with two unpaired electrons.


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