scholarly journals Observations and analysis of absorption lines including J = K rotational levels of CH3CN: the envelope of Sagittarius B2(M)

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (2) ◽  
pp. 1521-1535
Author(s):  
Mitsunori Araki ◽  
Shuro Takano ◽  
Nobuhiko Kuze ◽  
Yoshiaki Minami ◽  
Takahiro Oyama ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Molecules in diffuse and translucent clouds experience cooling as a result of radiation and less excitation from collisions. However, rotation around a molecular axis of acetonitrile, CH3CN, cannot be cooled by radiation, causing rotational populations to concentrate at the J = K levels. We aim to search for absorption lines of CH3CN having J = K level concentrations in diffuse and translucent clouds. The JK = 43–33 transition at 73.6 GHz was investigated toward Sgr B2(M) in the Galactic Centre region and other sources, using the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. Based on the absorption lines detected toward Sgr B2(M), a radiation temperature of 2.8 ± 0.5 K, kinetic temperature of 88 ± 29 K and column density of (1.35 ± 0.14) × 1014 cm−2 were derived for this molecule, revealing extremely concentrated J = K levels due to the lower excitation temperature and higher kinetic temperature. The absorption lines occurred at a velocity of 64 km s−1. The results confirm that CH3CN with J = K level concentrations exists in the envelope of Sgr B2(M).

1980 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 83-84
Author(s):  
G.H. Macdonald ◽  
A.T. Brown ◽  
L.T. Little ◽  
D.N. Matheson ◽  
M. Felli

Ammonia is a favoured molecule for the study of molecular clouds since several important parameters of the cloud can be deduced from simple observations of the J,K=1,1 and 2,2 inversion doublet transitions and the hyperfine structure in the (1,1) line. With the additional knowledge of the kinetic temperature Tk from observations of CO, for example, it is possible to compute the excitation temperature of the (1,1) line (T11), the rotational temperature between the (1,1) and (2,2) levels (T21), the molecular hydrogen density n(H2) and ammonia column density N(NH3) (see, for example, Martin and Barrett, 1978).


1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 239-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Kerr

A review is given of information on the galactic-centre region obtained from recent observations of the 21-cm line from neutral hydrogen, the 18-cm group of OH lines, a hydrogen recombination line at 6 cm wavelength, and the continuum emission from ionized hydrogen.Both inward and outward motions are important in this region, in addition to rotation. Several types of observation indicate the presence of material in features inclined to the galactic plane. The relationship between the H and OH concentrations is not yet clear, but a rough picture of the central region can be proposed.


1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 177-179
Author(s):  
W. W. Shane

In the course of several 21-cm observing programmes being carried out by the Leiden Observatory with the 25-meter telescope at Dwingeloo, a fairly complete, though inhomogeneous, survey of the regionl11= 0° to 66° at low galactic latitudes is becoming available. The essential data on this survey are presented in Table 1. Oort (1967) has given a preliminary report on the first and third investigations. The third is discussed briefly by Kerr in his introductory lecture on the galactic centre region (Paper 42). Burton (1966) has published provisional results of the fifth investigation, and I have discussed the sixth in Paper 19. All of the observations listed in the table have been completed, but we plan to extend investigation 3 to a much finer grid of positions.


1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
F. J. Kerr

A continuum survey of the galactic-centre region has been carried out at Parkes at 20 cm wavelength over the areal11= 355° to 5°,b11= -3° to +3° (Kerr and Sinclair 1966, 1967). This is a larger region than has been covered in such surveys in the past. The observations were done as declination scans.


1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 97-98
Author(s):  
Matthias Bartelmann ◽  
Abraham Loeb

A wealth of observational data supports the commonly held view that damped Lyman-α (Lyα) absorption in QSO spectra is associated with neutral-hydrogen (HI) disks in spiral galaxies. Most of the HI probed by QSO absorption lines is traced by damped Lyα lines because of their high column densities, N > 1020 cm–2. The spiral galaxies hosting the HI disks can act as gravitational lenses on the QSOs. If the HI column density increases towards the center of the disks, as suggested by observations of local galaxies, the magnification bias preferentially selects for high column-density systems. The estimates of HI in damped Lyα systems can then systematically be distorted by gravitational lensing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (1) ◽  
pp. 1246-1252
Author(s):  
M Zoccali ◽  
E Valenti ◽  
F Surot ◽  
O A Gonzalez ◽  
A Renzini ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We analyse the near-infrared colour–magnitude diagram of a field including the giant molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 (a.k.a. The Brick) observed at high spatial resolution, with HAWK-I@VLT. The distribution of red clump stars in a line of sight crossing the cloud, compared with that in a direction just beside it, and not crossing it, allow us to measure the distance of the cloud from the Sun to be 7.20, with a statistical uncertainty of ±0.16 and a systematic error of ±0.20 kpc. This is significantly closer than what is generally assumed, i.e. that the cloud belongs to the near side of the central molecular zone, at 60 pc from the Galactic centre. This assumption was based on dynamical models of the central molecular zone, observationally constrained uniquely by the radial velocity of this and other clouds. Determining the true position of the Brick cloud is relevant because this is the densest cloud of the Galaxy not showing any ongoing star formation. This puts the cloud off by one order of magnitude from the Kennicutt–Schmidt relation between the density of the dense gas and the star formation rate. Several explanations have been proposed for this absence of star formation, most of them based on the dynamical evolution of this and other clouds, within the Galactic centre region. Our result emphasizes the need to include constraints coming from stellar observations in the interpretation of our Galaxy’s central molecular zone.


2021 ◽  
Vol 257 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ningyu Tang ◽  
Di Li ◽  
Gan Luo ◽  
Carl Heiles ◽  
Sheng-Li Qin ◽  
...  

Abstract We present high-sensitivity CH 9 cm ON/OFF observations toward 18 extragalactic continuum sources that have been detected with OH 18 cm absorption in the Millennium survey with the Arecibo telescope. CH emission was detected toward 6 of the 18 sources. The excitation temperature of CH has been derived directly through analyzing all detected ON and OFF velocity components. The excitation temperature of CH 3335 MHz transition ranges from −54.5 to −0.4 K and roughly follows a log-normal distribution peaking within [−5, 0] K, which implies overestimation by 20% to more than 10 times during calculating CH column density by assuming the conventional value of −60 or −10 K. Furthermore, the column density of CH would be underestimated by a factor of 1.32 ± 0.03 when adopting local thermal equilibrium assumption instead of using the CH three hyperfine transitions. We found a correlation between the column density of CH and OH following log N(CH) = (1.80 ± 0.49) and log N(OH −11.59 ± 6.87. The linear correlation between the column density of CH and H2 is consistent with that derived from visible wavelengths studies, confirming that CH is one of the best tracers of H2 components in diffuse molecular gas.


1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
J. H. Seiradakis ◽  
W. Reich ◽  
Y. Sofue

Symmetrical structures do exist, in the Galactic Centre region, In this article we attempt to summarize their properties and draw the attention of the scientific community to the advantages of taking them into account when working with models of the Centre of our Galaxy, Our work is corroborated by two new maps of the region at 10.7 GHz.


1987 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 145-146
Author(s):  
T. L. Wilson ◽  
E. Serabyn ◽  
C. Henkel ◽  
C. M. Walmsley

A fully sampled map of size ∼1′×3′ (R.A. Dec), centered on BN-KL has been made in the J = 1-0 line of 12C18O with 21″ angular resolution. The 12C18O emission is concentrated in a ← 40″ wide continuous strip running S to NE. Several maxima are superposed on the ridge, but none exceeds the average emission level by more than 40%. There is no intense peak of 12C18O J = 1-0 line emission centered on BN-KL, in contrast to maps of the dust emission. The dust and 12C18O results can be reconciled with a constant (CO/H2) ratio if there are variations in the kinetic temperature and column density of ∼50%. Peaks in both temperature and column density are then located near BN-KL, and 90″ to the south. From the estimated CO column density, about 10% of the carbon is in the form of CO. Near the BN-KL region, the 12C18O line profiles tend to become wider. These wider lines appear to be superposed on a weak, 18 km s−1 (FWHP) wide pedestal. In regions 40″ NE and 30″ S of BN-KL, the 12C18O lines have widths of less than 2 km s−1. Presumably, these are the locations of high density, quiescent molecular gas. The radial velocity of the CO emission increases from 6.5 km s−1 (at 90″ S) to 10.5 km s−1 (at 60″ NE) of BN-KL. Close to BN-KL, however, there is evidence that this trend is reversed.


1977 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 119-120
Author(s):  
R. D. Davies ◽  
R. J. Cohen

An investigation of the central regions of the Galaxy has been made with an angular resolution of ~10 arcmin with the radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank using the spectral lines of HI (λ21 cm), OH (λ18 cm) and H2CO (λ6 cm). Observations of radio recombination lines in the range (λ21 to 125 cm) have also been taken. These data taken together provide information on the velocity field and gas distribution in the galactic centre region. A continuing programme of spectral line observations of the galactic centre is being pursued at Jodrell Bank.


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