On the Formation of Cometary Carbon Disulfide (CS2)

The formation of cometary CS from CS2 was proposed about 20 years before the latter's detection in comet 122P/de Vico by Jackson et al. (2002). However, the origin of CS2 has received little attention from either experimentalists or theorists. As part of our on-going laboratory program to investigate cometary molecules we have examined chemical reactions that lead to CS2 in the solid state. Icy mixtures of known cometary molecules were proton irradiated near 10K to doses of several eV per molecule. Mid-IR spectroscopy was used as an in situ probe to record both CS2 formation in the ices and the destruction of precursors. We find that the most likely route to cometary CS2 is through OCS by way of the S + CO reaction. We also observe the monocyclic molecule OCS2 as an intermediate on the path from OCS to CS2. This work was funded by NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics program.