First Observation of CO$_2$ Emission and foreground absorption Toward the Galactic Center with JWST
CO$_2$ is an important, stable, and abundant molecule in the Universe, but it is very difficult to detect because it has no observable pure rotational transitions. The unique sensitivity and resolution of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) provide a fresh way to investigate it. CO$_2$ is typically found in the solid phase (ice) on grain mantles in dense molecular clouds, but is less commonly detected in the gas phase (compared to common molecules such as CO and H$_2$O) and has mostly been found in protostellar and proto-planetary environments. Here, we report and characterize the first observations of gas-phase CO$_2$ absorption toward two IR-bright regions of the Galactic Center, thanks to the high sensitivity of JWST. Using an LTE model we find a CO$_2$ gas excitation temperature between 20 and 50~K, a column density around 2$\times$10$^{15}$~cm$^{-2}$ and a radial velocity consistent with 0. We also report: 1) simultaneous detections of C$_2$H$_2$ and HCN absorption bands (near 13.7 and 14.0 $\mu$m, respectively), with column densitiy ratios of 1:3 and 3:2 with respect to gas-phase CO$_2$, and 2) CO$_2$ ice absorption with a ice-to-gas ratio of 90, consistent with previous findings. We conclude that the absorbing medium is likely in the foreground, most likely from one or more somewhat clumpy cloud(s), located between 0.15 and 4~kpc away from Earth. Additionally, we detected point-like CO$_2$ emission likely associated with a Galactic Center star (IRS~11SW), which is also spatially coincident with a previously reported X-ray source, raising the possibility that the system is a symbiotic binary.