Far-infrared detection of H3O+ in Sagittarius B21
| Autor: | Goicoechea, Javier R., Cernicharo, José |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (España) |
| Rok vydání: | 2001 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| Popis: | 4 pags., 2 figs. We report the first far-infrared detection of the hydronium ion (H3O+) toward the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud, near the Galactic center. Using the Infrared Space Observatory Long-Wavelength Spectrometer, we have detected three lines arising from the v2 ground-state inversion mode (0+→0-) at 55.3 cm-1. All transitions are observed in absorption against the optically thick infrared continuum emission of the dust. Two different absorption regions can be distinguished, the H3O+ associated with the Sgr B2 extended envelope and that of foreground gas along the line of sight. The derived abundances for both components are rather similar, ≲1 × 10-9, and may explain the high water abundance found in the low-density gas toward Sgr B2 as its dissociative recombination leads to the formation of important molecules OH and H2O. Contribution of the ℚ(1, 1) line of para-H3O+ to the 212-101line of H2 18O is also analyzed. This allows a better determination of water abundance from far-infrared observations. The corrected H2O abundances are ≤10-6 for the diffuse clouds along the line of sight and a few times 10-6 for the gas associated with the Sgr B2 envelope, in good agreement with water vapor observations from the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite. We thank the Spanish DGES and PNIE for funding support under grants PB96-0883 and ESP98-1351-E |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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