A search for interstellar anthracene towards the Perseus anomalous microwave emission region

Iglesias-Groth, S.; Manchado, A.; Rebolo, R.; González-Hernández, J. I.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Lambert, D. L.
Referencia bibliográfica

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 407, Issue 4, pp. 2157-2165.

Fecha de publicación:
10
2010
Número de autores
6
Número de autores del IAC
5
Número de citas
51
Número de citas referidas
45
Descripción
We report the discovery of a new broad interstellar (or circumstellar) band at 7088.8 +/- 2.0 Å coincident to within the measurement uncertainties with the strongest band of the anthracene cation (C14H10+) as measured in gas-phase laboratory spectroscopy at low temperatures. The band is detected in the line of sight of star Cernis 52, a likely member of the very young star cluster IC 348, and is probably associated with cold absorbing material in an intervening molecular cloud of the Perseus star-forming region where various experiments have recently detected anomalous microwave emission. From the measured intensity and available oscillator strength we find a column density of implying that ~0.008 per cent of the carbon in the cloud could be in the form of C14H10+. A similar abundance has been recently claimed for the naphthalene cation in this cloud. This is the first location outside the Solar system where specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are identified. We report observations of interstellar lines of CH and CH+ that support a rather high column density for these species and for molecular hydrogen. The strength ratio of the two prominent diffuse interstellar bands at 5780 and 5797 Å suggests the presence of a `zeta'-type cloud in the line of sight (consistent with steep far-ultraviolet extinction and high molecular content). The presence of PAH cations and other related hydrogenated carbon molecules which are likely to occur in this type of clouds reinforces the suggestion that electric dipole radiation from fast-spinning PAHs is responsible of the anomalous microwave emission detected towards Perseus.
Proyectos relacionados
Project Image
Nucleosíntesis y procesos moleculares en los últimos estados de la evolución estelar
Las estrellas de masa baja e intermedia (M < 8 masas solares, Ms) representan la mayoría de estrellas en el Cosmos y terminan sus vidas en la Rama Asintótica de las Gigantes (AGB) - justo antes de formar Nebulosas Planetarias (NPs) - cuando experimentan procesos nucleosintéticos y moleculares complejos. Las estrellas AGB son importantes
Domingo Aníbal
García Hernández