Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21721707g&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #217.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The reactive molecular ions, OH+, H2O+, and H3O+, key probes of the oxygen chemistry of the interstellar gas, have been observed toward Orion KL with the Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared on board the Herschel Space Observatory. All three N = 1 - 0 fine-structure transitions of OH+ at 909, 971, and 1033 GHz and both fine-structure components of the doublet ortho-H2O+ 111 - 000 transition at 1115 and 1139 GHz were detected, and an upper limit was obtained for H3O+. OH+ and H2O+ are observed purely in absorption, showing a narrow component at the source velocity of 9 km s-1, and a broad blue shifted absorption similar to that reported recently for HF and para-H218O, and attributed to the low velocity outflow of Orion KL. We estimate column densities of OH+ and H2O+ for the 9 km s-1 component of 9 ± 3 x 1012 cm-2 and 7 ± 2 x 1012 cm-2, and those in the outflow of 1.9 ± 0.7 x 1013 cm-2 and 1.0 ± 0.3 x 1013 cm-2. Upper limits of 2.4 x 1012 cm-2 and 8.7 ± 1012 cm-2 were derived for the column densities of ortho and para-H3O+ from transitions near 985 and 1657 GHz. The column densities of the three ions are up to an order of magnitude lower than those obtained from recent observations of W31C and W49N. A higher gas density, despite the assumption of a large ionization rate, may explain the comparatively low column densities of the ions. A part of this work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Copyright 2010© California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.
Bergin Edwin A.
Gupta Harshal
Herbst Eric
Key Program HEXOS
Pearson James C.
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