Potential Jupiter atmospheric constituents: Candidates for the mass spectrometer in the Galileo atmospheric probe

An array of carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen (CHN) compounds are formed when mixtures of ammonia and acetylene are photolyzed with ultraviolet (UV) light. Some of these compounds, formed in our investigation of pathways for HCN synthesis on Jupiter, have not been encountered previously in observational, theoretical or laboratory photochemical studies. Knowledge of these structures may facilitate the interpretation of the mass spectral data obtained by the Galileo probe as it passed through the atmosphere of Jupiter. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.