Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published September 1, 1989 | Published
Journal Article Open

The abundances of atomic carbon and carbon monoxide compared with visual extinction in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex

Abstract

We have observed emission from the 492 GHz lines of C I toward six positions in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex for which accurate visual extinctions are available. We find that the column density of C I increases with A_v to greater than 2 x 10^(17) cm^(-2) at 100 mag, the column-averaged fractional abundance reaches a peak of about 2.2 x 10^(-5) for A_v in the range 4-11 mag and the column-averaged abundance ratio of C I to CO decreases with A_v from about 1 at 2 mag to greater than ~0.03 at 100 mag. These results imply that, while C I is not the primary reservoir of gaseous carbon even at cloud edges, its fractional abundance remains high for at least 10 mag into the cloud and may be significant at even greater depths.

Additional Information

© 1989 American Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System. Received 1985 March 11; accepted 1989 February 1. We would like to thank W. D. Langer for many useful discussions, E. van Dishoeck for a preprint of her work, and the crew of the NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory for their help and cooperation. We are grateful to C. A. Beichman and N.J. Evans for their help in obtaining the C 1 and CO spectra, respectively. The airborne observations were supported by NASA grant NAG 2-1 to Caltech. Partial support for M. A. Frerking was supplied by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Attached Files

Published - Frerking_Astrophys1989p311.pdf

Files

Frerking_Astrophys1989p311.pdf
Files (998.7 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:ad35bb215640078989fcedc0d7baeaee
998.7 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023