Herschel/HIFI discovery of interstellar chloronium (H_2Cl^+)
Abstract
We report the first detection of chloronium, H_2Cl^+, in the interstellar medium, using the HIFI instrument aboard the Herschel Space Observatory. The 2_(12)−1_(01) lines of ortho-H^(35)_2 Cl^+ and ortho-H^(37)_2 Cl^+ are detected in absorption towards NGC 6334I, and the 1_(11)−0_(00) transition of para-H^(35)_2 Cl^+ is detected in absorption towards NGC 6334I and Sgr B2(S). The H_2Cl^+ column densities are compared to those of the chemically-related species HCl. The derived HCl/H_2Cl^+ column density ratios, ~1–10, are within the range predicted by models of diffuse and dense photon dominated regions (PDRs). However, the observed H_2Cl^+ column densities, in excess of 10^(13) cm^(−2), are significantly higher than the model predictions. Our observations demonstrate the outstanding spectroscopic capabilities of HIFI for detecting new interstellar molecules and providing key constraints for astrochemical models.
Additional Information
© 2010 ESO. Received 9 May 2010, Accepted 14 June 2010, Published online 01 October 2010. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. Table 1 and acknowledgments (page 5) are only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org. HIFI has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and university departments from across Europe, Canada and the United States under the leadership of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands and with major contributions from Germany, France and the US. Consortium members are: Canada: CSA, U. Waterloo; France: CESR, LAB, LERMA, IRAM; Germany: KOSMA, MPIfR, MPS; Ireland, NUI Maynooth; Italy: ASI, IFSI-INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri- INAF; Netherlands: SRON, TUD; Poland: CAMK, CBK; Spain: Observatorio Astronomico Nacional (IGN), Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology – MC2, RSS & GARD; Onsala Space Observatory; Swedish National Space Board, Stockholm University – Stockholm Observatory; Switzerland: ETH Zurich, FHNW; USA: Caltech, JPL, NHSC. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. D. C. L. is supported by the NSF, award AST-0540882 to the CSO. A portion of this research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Attached Files
Published - Lis2010p12145Astron_Astrophys.pdf
Files
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:5bf6078e888b34ee87d13441d51ccffe
|
412.2 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 21728
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110112-105849614
- NASA
- NSF
- AST-0540882
- Created
-
2011-01-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)