Other
Scientific paper
Nov 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994ucb..reptr....s&link_type=abstract
Technical Report, California Univ. Berkeley, CA United States Dept. of Chemistry.
Other
Interstellar Matter, Cosmic Dust, Carbon, Absorption Spectra, Carbon Stars, Kuiper Airborne Observatory, Far Infrared Radiation, Orion Constellation
Scientific paper
The objective of this project was to execute a search for small neutral carbon clusters in cold interstellar dust clouds. These molecules have been detected in the outflow from carbon stars, and are likely to be abundant in cold sources as well. Two different searches were made, using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Several transitions in the fundamental bending vibration of the C3 molecule were searched for near 63 cm-1, using the Betz-Boreiko FIR heterodyne receiver. Precise values for the particular transitions were determined from tunable FIR laser spectroscopy experiments in the Saykally labs at Berkeley. The first search was made out of Moffett Field on January 28, 1994. The Q(4) transition at 1896.707 GHz was searched for in the IRc2, Orion/M42, and W3 sources. Despite 4 hours of quality observing time, no transitions were definitively detected. The second search was made out of Christchurch, New Zealand during April 1994 as part of the KAO Southern Skies Expedition #5. The R(2) transition at 1968.594 GHz was searched for in the SgrB2 source. In this case, a successful detection of the C3 molecule was made. A weak absorption signal with an LSR velocity of 63.7 +/- 0.6 km/s and a FWHM linewidth of 7.9 + 0.8 km/s was detected in SgrB2. This LSR velocity is characteristic of absorption lines from molecules in the gas near the core of SgrB2 and is also consistent with other carbon chain molecules detected this source. As a result, this absorption has been identified as the R(2) transition of the C3 bending mode. In summary, this project has enabled the first detection of a pure carbon molecule in a cold interstellar dust cloud. It also demonstrates the viability of using low frequency bending vibrations of very floppy molecules that are without permanent dipole moments as a vehicle for detecting them in the ISM. This approach will be extended to other carbon molecules and probably other non-polar molecules in future work.
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