Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources (HEXOS): detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines - Archive ouverte HAL
Journal Articles Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A Year : 2010

Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources (HEXOS): detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines

1 I. Physikalisches Institut [Köln]
2 Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
3 HASYLAB - Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor HASYLAB at Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY
4 Université de Cologne, Institut de Physique 1
5 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
6 DAPNIA - Département d'Astrophysique, de physique des Particules, de physique Nucléaire et de l'Instrumentation Associée
7 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
8 Department of Astronomy [Ann Arbor]
9 LOCIE - LabOratoire proCédés énergIe bâtimEnt
10 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique
11 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
12 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
13 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]
14 ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris
15 Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
16 LRA - Laboratoire de Radioastronomie
17 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
18 OSU - Department of Physics [Ohio State University]
19 Ohio State Univ, Dept Astron & Chem, Columbus, OH 43210 USA
20 Natl Res Council Canada, Herzberg Inst Astrophys, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 Canada
21 LM2C - Laboratoire de Modélisation Multi-échelles des Combustibles
22 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
23 IPAC - Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
24 LUTH (UMR_8102) - Laboratoire Univers et Théories
25 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
26 FL - foreign laboratories
27 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Calgary]
28 LDAR (EA_4434) - Laboratoire de Didactique André Revuz
29 Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen]
30 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung = Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
31 IAP - A.M.Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics
32 MWE - Millimeter-Wave Electronics Laboratory [ETH Zürich]
33 Onsala Space Observatory
S.-L. Qin
  • Function : Author
H. S. P. Müller
  • Function : Author
T. A. Bell
  • Function : Author
N. R. Crockett
  • Function : Author
J. Cernicharo
T. F. Giesen
  • Function : Author
P. F. Goldsmith
  • Function : Author
W. D. Langer
  • Function : Author
S. D. Lord
  • Function : Author
S. Maret
P. Morris
J. A. Murphy
  • Function : Author
D. A. Neufeld
  • Function : Author
H. W. Yorke
  • Function : Author
S. Yu
  • Function : Author
N. Honingh
  • Function : Author
J. Kooi
  • Function : Author
R. Schieder
  • Function : Author
M. C. Diez-Gonzalez
  • Function : Author
L. H. Nordh
  • Function : Author
J. L. Gill
  • Function : Author

Abstract

We have observed CH absorption lines (J = 3/2, N = 1 ≤ftarrow J = 1/2, N = 1) against the continuum source Sgr B2(M) using the Herschel/HIFI instrument. With the high spectral resolution and wide velocity coverage provided by HIFI, 31 CH absorption features with different radial velocities and line widths are detected and identified. The narrower line width and lower column density clouds show "spiral arm" cloud characteristics, while the absorption component with the broadest line width and highest column density corresponds to the gas from the Sgr B2 envelope. The observations show that each "spiral arm" harbors multiple velocity components, indicating that the clouds are not uniform and that they have internal structure. This line-of-sight through almost the entire Galaxy offers unique possibilities to study the basic chemistry of simple molecules in diffuse clouds, as a variety of different cloud classes are sampled simultaneously. We find that the linear relationship between CH and H2 column densities found at lower AV by UV observations does not continue into the range of higher visual extinction. There, the curve flattens, which probably means that CH is depleted in the denser cores of these clouds. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Dates and versions

hal-00633430 , version 1 (18-10-2011)

Identifiers

Cite

S.-L. Qin, P. Schilke, C. Comito, T. Möller, R. Rolffs, et al.. Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources (HEXOS): detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2010, 521, pp.L14. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201015107⟩. ⟨hal-00633430⟩
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