2021ApJ...907...51N -
Astrophys. J., 907, 51-51 (2021/January-3)
The first mid-infrared detection of HNC in the interstellar medium: probing the extreme environment toward the Orion hot core.
NICKERSON S., RANGWALA N., COLGAN S.W.J., DEWITT C., HUANG X., ACHARYYA K., DROZDOVSKAYA M., FORTENBERRY R.C., HERBST E. and LEE T.J.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present the first mid-infrared (MIR) detections of HNC and H13CN in the interstellar medium, and numerous resolved HCN rovibrational transitions. Our observations span 12.8-22.9 µm toward the hot core Orion IRc2, obtained with the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). In particular, ∼5 km s–1 resolution distinguishes individual rovibrational transitions of the HNC and HCN P, Q, and R branches; and the H13CN R branch. This allows direct measurement of the species' excitation temperatures, column densities, and relative abundances. HNC and H13CN exhibit a local standard of rest velocity of -7 km s–1 that may be associated with an outflow from nearby radio source I and an excitation temperature of about 100 K. We resolve two velocity components for HCN, the primary component also being at -7 km s–1 with a temperature of 165 K. The hottest component, which had never before been observed, is at 1 km s–1 with a temperature of 309 K. This is the closest component to the hot core's center measured to date. The derived 12C/13C=13±2 is below expectation for Orion's Galactocentric distance, but the derived HCN/HNC = 72 ± 7 is expected for this extreme environment. Compared to previous sub-millimeter and millimeter observations, our SOFIA line survey of this region shows that the resolved MIR molecular transitions are probing a distinct physical component and isolating the chemistry closest to the hot core.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
Infrared astronomy - Interstellar medium - Star formation - Molecular spectroscopy - Spectral line identification - Molecular physics
Simbad objects:
14
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