This paper is occasioned by the passing (in 2019) of the three decades that have followed the rst spectroscopic identication of the H+3 molecular ion outside of the laboratory, in the auroral atmosphere of the giant planet Jupiter. These decades have seen the astronomy related to this simple molecular ion expand enormously such that, in order to do justice to this being a review paper, we have had to summarise and evaluate some 450 refereed articles. This enormous body of work has revealed surprises and illuminated the extensive role played by H+3 in astrophysical environments in our own Solar System and beyond. At the same time the physical chemistry / chemical physics of the molecule that has been revealed and studied during this time has proved fascinating and enabled high resolution spectroscopy to benchmark its achievements against equally high precision calculations. This review includes a brief look at some of the key foundational articles from before the original 1988 Jupiter detection (including the original 1911 ion discharge tube detection by J.J. Thomson and the key laboratory spectroscopy and theoretical QM calculations on H+3 structure and spectrum). It will explain the original detection and its serendipitous nature, and look at the astronomy that followed this all the way up to the latest (and very beautiful) results from NASA’s Juno mission. The review also covers the major advances in our understanding of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) that have been brought about by the detection of H+3 absorption lines there in 1996. It closes by examining claims for the ion’s presence in other astrophysical environments and its potential role in the atmospheres of exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs.

中文翻译：

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H3 +天文学的三十年

在大型木星极光大气中，实验室外H + 3分子离子的首次光谱鉴定之后的三十年（2019年）过去，这是本文的偶然之处。在过去的几十年中，与这种简单分子离子有关的天文学得到了极大的扩展，因此，为了使这篇论文更加公正，我们不得不对大约450篇被引用的文章进行总结和评估。这项巨大的工作揭示了惊奇，并阐明了H + 3在我们太阳系及其以外的天体环境中所发挥的广泛作用。同时，在此期间已经揭示和研究的分子的物理化学/化学物理学已证明是引人入胜的，并使高分辨率光谱学能够将其成就与同样的高精度计算进行比较。这篇综述简要介绍了原始1988年木星探测之前的一些关键基础文章（包括JJ Thomson最初的1911年离子放电管探测以及关键的实验室光谱学和H + 3结构和光谱的理论QM计算）。它将解释原始的探测及其偶然的性质，并观察一直沿用的天文学直到美国宇航局朱诺任务的最新（且非常漂亮）的结果。