arXiv subjects

C. Kahane

Publications and source records attributed to C. Kahane.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Mass ejection and time variability in protostellar outflows: Cep E. SOLIS XVI

Protostellar jets are an important agent of star formation feedback, tightly connected with the mass-accretion process. The history of jet formation and mass-ejection provides constraints on the mass accretion history and the nature of the driving source. We want to characterize the time-variability of the mass-ejection phenomena at work in the Class 0 protostellar phase, in order to better understand the dynamics of the outflowing gas and bring more constraints on the origin of the jet chemical composition and the mass-accretion history. We have observed the emission of the CO 2-1 and SO N_J=5_4-4_3 rotational transitions with NOEMA, towards the intermediate-mass Class 0 protostellar system Cep E. The CO high-velocity jet emission reveals a central component associated with high-velocity molecular knots, also detected in SO, surrounded by a collimated layer of entrained gas. The gas layer appears to accelerate along the main axis over a length scale delta_0 ~700 au, while its diameter gradually increases up to several 1000au at 2000au from the protostar. The jet is fragmented into 18 knots of mass ~10^-3 Msun, unevenly distributed between the northern and southern lobes, with velocity variations up to 15 km/s close to the protostar, well below the jet terminal velocities. The knot interval distribution is approximately bimodal with a scale of ~50-80yr close to the protostar and ~150-200yr at larger distances >12". The mass-loss rates derived from knot masses are overall steady, with values of 2.7x10^-5 Msun/yr (8.9x10^-6 Msun/yr) in the northern (southern) lobe. The interaction of the ambient protostellar material with high-velocity knots drives the formation of a molecular layer around the jet, which accounts for the higher mass-loss rate in the north. The jet dynamics are well accounted for by a simple precession model with a period of 2000yr and a mass-ejection period of 55yr.

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arXiv2020

FAUST I. The hot corino at the heart of the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5

The study of hot corinos in Solar-like protostars has been so far mostly limited to the Class 0 phase, hampering our understanding of their origin and evolution. In addition, recent evidence suggests that planet formation starts already during Class I phase, which, therefore, represents a crucial step in the future planetary system chemical composition. Hence, the study of hot corinos in Class I protostars has become of paramount importance. Here we report the discovery of a hot corino towards the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5, obtained within the ALMA Large Program FAUST. We detected several lines from methanol and its isopotologues ($^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and CH$_{\rm 2}$DOH), methyl formate and ethanol. Lines are bright toward the north component of the IRS5 binary system, and a possible second hot corino may be associated with the south component. The methanol lines non-LTE analysis constrains the gas temperature ($\sim$100 K), density ($\geq$1.5$\times$10$^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$), and emitting size ($\sim$10 au in radius). All CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and $^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH lines are optically thick, preventing a reliable measure of the deuteration. The methyl formate and ethanol relative abundances are compatible with those measured in Class 0 hot corinos. Thus, based on the present work, little chemical evolution from Class 0 to I hot corinos occurs.

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arXiv2020

Hunting for hot corinos and WCCC sources in the OMC-2/3 filament

Context: Solar-like protostars are known to be chemically rich, but it is not yet clear how much their chemical composition can vary and why. So far, two chemically distinct types of Solar-like protostars have been identified: hot corinos, which are enriched in interstellar Complex Organic Molecules (iCOMs), such as methanol (CH$_3$OH) or dimethyl ether (CH$_3$OCH$_3$), and Warm Carbon Chain Chemistry (WCCC) objects, which are enriched in carbon chain molecules, such as butadiynyl (C$_4$H) or ethynyl radical (CCH). However, none of these have been studied so far in environments similar to that in which our Sun was born, that is, one that is close to massive stars. Aims: In this work, we search for hot corinos and WCCC objects in the closest analogue to the Sun's birth environment, the Orion Molecular Cloud 2/3 (OMC-2/3) filament located in the Orion A molecular cloud. Methods: We obtained single-dish observations of CCH and CH$_3$OH line emission towards nine Solar-like protostars in this region. As in other, similar studies of late, we used the [CCH]/[CH$_3$OH] abundance ratio in order to determine the chemical nature of our protostar sample. Results: Unexpectedly, we found that the observed methanol and ethynyl radical emission (over a few thousands au scale) does not seem to originate from the protostars but rather from the parental cloud and its photo-dissociation region, illuminated by the OB stars of the region. Conclusions: Our results strongly suggest that caution should be taken before using [CCH]/[CH$_3$OH] from single-dish observations as an indicator of the protostellar chemical nature and that there is a need for other tracers or high angular resolution observations for probing the inner protostellar layers.

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arXiv2020

No nitrogen fractionation on 600 au scale in the Sun progenitor analogue OMC-2 FIR4

We show the first interferometric maps of the 14N/15N ratio obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) towards the Solar-like forming protocluster OMC-2 FIR4. We observed N2H+, 15NNH+, N15NH+ (1-0), and N2D+ (2-1), from which we derive the isotopic ratios 14N/15N and D/H. The target is one of the closest analogues of the environment in which our Sun may have formed. The ALMA images, having synthesised beam corresponding to ~600 au, show that the emission of the less abundant isotopologues is distributed in several cores of ~10" (i.e. ~0.02~pc or 4000 au) embedded in a more extended N2H+ emission. Overall, our results indicate that: (1) 14N/15N does not change across the region at core scales, and (2) 14N/15N does not depend on temperature variations. Our findings also suggest that the 14N/15N variations found in pristine Solar System objects are likely not inherited from the protocluster stage, and hence their reason has to be found elsewhere.

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arXiv2019

Molecules in the CepE-mm jet: evidence for shock-driven photochemistry?

The chemical composition of protostellar jets and its origin are still badly understood. More observational constraints are needed to make progress. With that objective, we have carried out a systematic search for molecular species in the jet of Cep E-mm, a template for intermediate-mass Class 0 protostars, associated with a luminous, high-velocity outflow. We made use of an unbiased spectral line survey in the range 72-350 GHz obtained with the IRAM 30m telescope, complementary observations of the CO $J$=3-2 transition with the JCMT, and observations at 1" angular resolution of the CO $J$=2-1 transition with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer. In addition to CO, we have detected rotational transitions from SiO, SO, H$_2$CO, CS, HCO$^{+}$ and HCN. A strong chemical differentiation is observed in the southern and northern lobes of the jet. Radiative transfer analysis in the Large Velocity Gradient approximation yields typical molecular abundances of the order of $10^{-8}$ for all molecular species other than CO. Overall, the jets exhibit an unusual chemical composition, as CS, SO and H$_2$CO are found to be the most abundant species, with a typical abundance of (3-4)$\times 10^{-8}$. The transverse size of the CO jet emission estimated from interferometric observations is about 1000 au, suggesting that we are detecting emission from a turbulent layer of gas entrained by the jet in its propagation and not the jet itself. We propose that some molecular species could be the signatures of the specific photochemistry driven by the UV radiation field generated in the turbulent envelope.

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arXiv2018

The census of interstellar complex organic molecules in the Class I hot corino of SVS13-A

We present the first census of the interstellar Complex Organic Molecules (iCOMs) in the low-mass Class I protostar SVS13-A, obtained by analysing data from the IRAM-30m Large Project ASAI (Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM). They consist of an high-sensitivity unbiased spectral survey at the 1mm, 2mm and 3mm IRAM bands. We detected five iCOMs: acetaldehyde (CH$_3$CHO), methyl formate (HCOOCH$_3$), dimethyl ether (CH$_3$OCH$_3$), ethanol (CH$_3$CH$_2$OH) and formamide (NH$_2$CHO). In addition we searched for other iCOMs and ketene (H$_2$CCO), formic acid (HCOOH) and methoxy (CH$_3$O), whose only ketene was detected. The numerous detected lines, from 5 to 37 depending on the species, cover a large upper level energy range, between 15 and 254 K. This allowed us to carry out a rotational diagram analysis and derive rotational temperatures between 35 and 110 K, and column densities between $3\times 10^{15}$ and $1\times 10^{17}$ cm$^{-2}$ on the 0."3 size previously determined by interferometric observations of glycolaldehyde. These new observations clearly demonstrate the presence of a rich chemistry in the hot corino towards SVS13-A. The measured iCOMs abundances were compared to other Class 0 and I hot corinos, as well as comets, previously published in the literature. We find evidence that (i) SVS13-A is as chemically rich as younger Class 0 protostars, and (ii) the iCOMs relative abundances do not substantially evolve during the protostellar phase.

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arXiv2018

First Hot Corino detected around an Isolated Intermediate-Mass Protostar: Cep\,E-mm

Intermediate-mass (IM) protostars provide a bridge between the low- and high-mass protostars. Despite their relevance, little is known about their chemical diversity. We want to investigate the molecular richness towards the envelope of IM protostars and to compare their properties with other sources. We have selected the isolated IM Class 0 protostar CepE-mm to carry out an unbiased molecular survey with the IRAM 30m telescope between 72 and 350 GHz with an angular resolution lying in the range 7-34". These data were complemented with NOEMA observations of the spectral bands 85.9 - 89.6 GHz and 216.8 - 220.4 GHz at an angular resolution of 2.3 and 1.4", respectively. 30m spectra show bright emission of O- and N-bearing COMs. We identify three components in the spectral signature: an extremely broad line component associated with the outflowing gas, a narrow line component associated with the cold envelope, and a broad line component tracing the hot corino. NOEMA observations reveal CepE-mm as a binary protostellar system CepE-A and B, separated by 1.7". CepE-A dominates the core continuum emission and powers the high-velocity jet associated with HH377. Our interferometric maps show that COMs arises from a region of 0.7" size around CepE-A. Rotational temperatures were found to lie in the range 20-40 K with column densities ranging from a few 10^15 cm-2 for O-bearing species, down to a few 10^14 cm-2 for N-bearing species. Molecular abundances are similar to those measured towards other low- and intermediate-mass protostars. High-mass hot cores are significantly less abundant in methanol and N-bearing species are more abundant by 3 orders of magnitude.CepE-mm reveals itself as a binary protostellar system with a strong chemical differentiation. The brightest component of the binary is associated with a hot corino. Its properties are similar to those of low-mass hot corinos.

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arXiv2018

SOLIS IV. Hydrocarbons in the OMC-2 FIR 4 region, a probe of energetic particle irradiation of the region

We report new interferometric images of cyclopropenylidene, c-C$_3$H$_2$, towards the young protocluster OMC-2 FIR\,4. The observations were performed at 82 and 85 GHz with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) as part of the project Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS). In addition, IRAM-30m data observations were used to investigate the physical structure of OMC-2 FIR\,4. We find that the c-C$_3$H$_2$ gas emits from the same region where previous SOLIS observations showed bright HC$_5$N emission. From a non-LTE analysis of the IRAM-30m data, the c-C$_3$H$_2$ gas has an average temperature of $\sim$40K, a H$_2$ density of $\sim$3$\times$10$^{5}$~cm$^{-3}$, and a c-C$_3$H$_2$ abundance relative to H$_2$ of ($7\pm1$)$\times$10$^{-12}$. In addition, the NOEMA observations provide no sign of significant c-C$_3$H$_2$ excitation temperature gradients across the region (about 3-4 beams), with T$_{ex}$ in the range 8$\pm$3 up to 16$\pm$7K. We thus infer that our observations are inconsistent with a physical interaction of the OMC-2 FIR\,4 envelope with the outflow arising from OMC-2 FIR\,3, as claimed by previous studies. The comparison of the measured c-C$_3$H$_2$ abundance with the predictions from an astrochemical PDR model indicates that OMC-2 FIR\,4 is irradiated by a FUV field $\sim$1000 times larger than the interstellar one, and by a flux of ionising particles $\sim$4000 times larger than the canonical value of $1\times10^{-17}$~s$^{-1}$ from the Galaxy cosmic rays, which is consistent with our previous HC$_5$N observations. This provides an important and independent confirmation of other studies that one or more sources inside the OMC-2 FIR\,4 region emit energetic ($\geq10$~MeV) particles.

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arXiv2018

Astrochemical evolution along star formation: Overview of the IRAM Large Program ASAI

Evidence is mounting that the small bodies of our Solar System, such as comets and asteroids, have at least partially inherited their chemical composition from the first phases of the Solar System formation. It then appears that the molecular complexity of these small bodies is most likely related to the earliest stages of star formation. It is therefore important to characterize and to understand how the chemical evolution changes with solar-type protostellar evolution. We present here the Large Program "Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM" (ASAI). Its goal is to carry out unbiased millimeter line surveys between 80 and 272 GHz of a sample of ten template sources, which fully cover the first stages of the formation process of solar-type stars, from prestellar cores to the late protostellar phase. In this article, we present an overview of the surveys and results obtained from the analysis of the 3 mm band observations. The number of detected main isotopic species barely varies with the evolutionary stage and is found to be very similar to that of massive star-forming regions. The molecular content in O- and C- bearing species allows us to define two chemical classes of envelopes, whose composition is dominated by either a) a rich content in O-rich complex organic molecules, associated with hot corino sources, or b) a rich content in hydrocarbons, typical of Warm Carbon Chain Chemistry sources. Overall, a high chemical richness is found to be present already in the initial phases of solar-type star formation.

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arXiv2018

A search for Cyanopolyynes in L1157-B1

We present here a systematic search for cyanopolyynes in the shock region L1157-B1 and its associated protostar L1157-mm in the framework of the Large Program "Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM" (ASAI), dedicated to chemical surveys of solar-type star forming regions with the IRAM 30m telescope. Observations of the millimeter windows between 72 and 272 GHz permitted the detection of HC$_3$N and its $^{13}$C isotopologues, and HC$_5$N (for the first time in a protostellar shock region). In the shock, analysis of the line profiles shows that the emission arises from the outflow cavities associated with L1157-B1 and L1157-B2. Molecular abundances and excitation conditions were obtained from analysis of the Spectral Line Energy Distributions under the assumption of Local Thermodynamical Equilibrium or using a radiative transfer code in the Large Velocity Gradient approximation. Towards L1157mm, the HC$_3$N emission arises from the cold envelope ($T_{rot}=10$ K) and a higher-excitation region ($T_{rot}$= $31$ K) of smaller extent around the protostar. We did not find any evidence of $^{13}$C or D fractionation enrichment towards L1157-B1. We obtain a relative abundance ratio HC$_3$N/HC$_5$N of 3.3 in the shocked gas. We find an increase by a factor of 30 of the HC$_3$N abundance between the envelope of L1157-mm and the shock region itself. Altogether, these results are consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of HC$_3$N was produced by means of gas phase reactions in the passage of the shock. This scenario is supported by the predictions of a parametric shock code coupled with the chemical model UCL_CHEM.

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arXiv2017

Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS): The organic composition diversity at 300--1000 au scale in Solar-type star forming regions

Complex organic molecules have been observed for decades in the interstellar medium. Some of them might be considered as small bricks of the macromolecules at the base of terrestrial life. It is hence particularly important to understand organic chemistry in Solar-like star forming regions. In this article, we present a new observational project: SOLIS (Seeds Of Life In Space). This is a Large Project at the IRAM-NOEMA interferometer, and its scope is to image the emission of several crucial organic molecules in a sample of Solar-like star forming regions in different evolutionary stage and environments. Here, we report the first SOLIS results, obtained from analysing the spectra of different regions of the Class 0 source NGC1333-IRAS4A, the protocluster OMC-2 FIR4, and the shock site L1157-B1. The different regions were identified based on the images of formamide (NH2CHO) and cyanodiacetylene (HC5N) lines. We discuss the observed large diversity in the molecular and organic content, both on large (3000-10000 au) and relatively small (300-1000 au) scales. Finally, we derive upper limits to the methoxy fractional abundance in the three observed regions of the same order of magnitude of that measured in few cold prestellar objects, namely ~10^-12-10^-11 with respect to H2 molecules.

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arXiv2017

Seeds of Life in Space (SOLIS) III. Formamide in protostellar shocks: evidence for gas-phase formation

Context: Modern versions of the Miller-Urey experiment claim that formamide (NH$_2$CHO) could be the starting point for the formation of metabolic and genetic macromolecules. Intriguingly, formamide is indeed observed in regions forming Solar-type stars as well as in external galaxies. Aims: How NH$_2$CHO is formed has been a puzzle for decades: our goal is to contribute to the hotly debated question of whether formamide is mostly formed via gas-phase or grain surface chemistry. Methods: We used the NOEMA interferometer to image NH$_2$CHO towards the L1157-B1 blue-shifted shock, a well known interstellar laboratory, to study how the components of dust mantles and cores released into the gas phase triggers the formation of formamide. Results: We report the first spatially resolved image (size $\sim$ 9", $\sim$ 2300 AU) of formamide emission in a shocked region around a Sun-like protostar: the line profiles are blueshifted and have a FWHM $\simeq$ 5 km s$^{-1}$. A column density of $N_{\rm NH_2CHO}$ = 8 $\times$ 10$^{12}$ cm$^{-1}$, and an abundance (with respect to H-nuclei) of 4 $\times$ 10$^{-9}$ are derived. We show a spatial segregation of formamide with respect to other organic species. Our observations, coupled with a chemical modelling analysis, indicate that the formamide observed in L1157-B1 is formed by gas-phase chemical process, and not on grain surfaces as previously suggested. Conclusions: The SOLIS interferometric observations of formamide provide direct evidence that this potentially crucial brick of life is efficiently formed in the gas-phase around Sun-like protostars.

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arXiv2017

Complex organics in IRAS 4A revisited with ALMA and PdBI: Striking contrast between two neighbouring protostellar cores

We used the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) to image, with an angular resolution of 0.5$''$ (120 au) and 1$''$ (235 au), respectively, the emission from 11 different organic molecules in the protostellar binary NGC1333 IRAS 4A. We clearly disentangled A1 and A2, the two protostellar cores present. For the first time, we were able to derive the column densities and fractional abundances simultaneously for the two objects, allowing us to analyse the chemical differences between them. Molecular emission from organic molecules is concentrated exclusively in A2 even though A1 is the strongest continuum emitter. The protostellar core A2 displays typical hot corino abundances and its deconvolved size is 70 au. In contrast, the upper limits we placed on molecular abundances for A1 are extremely low, lying about one order of magnitude below prestellar values. The difference in the amount of organic molecules present in A1 and A2 ranges between one and two orders of magnitude. Our results suggest that the optical depth of dust emission at these wavelengths is unlikely to be sufficiently high to completely hide a hot corino in A1 similar in size to that in A2. Thus, the significant contrast in molecular richness found between the two sources is most probably real. We estimate that the size of a hypothetical hot corino in A1 should be less than 12 au. Our results favour a scenario in which the protostar in A2 is either more massive and/or subject to a higher accretion rate than A1, as a result of inhomogeneous fragmentation of the parental molecular clump. This naturally explains the smaller current envelope mass in A2 with respect to A1 along with its molecular richness.

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arXiv2017

SOLIS II. Carbon-chain growth in the Solar-type protocluster OMC2-FIR4

The interstellar delivery of carbon atoms locked into molecules might be one of the key ingredients for the emergence of life. Cyanopolyynes are carbon chains delimited at their two extremities by an atom of hydrogen and a cyano group, so that they might be excellent reservoirs of carbon. The simplest member, HC3N, is ubiquitous in the galactic interstellar medium and found also in external galaxies. Thus, understanding the growth of cyanopolyynes in regions forming stars similar to our Sun, and what affects it, is particularly relevant. In the framework of the IRAM/NOEMA Large Program SOLIS (Seeds Of Life In Space), we have obtained a map of two cyanopolyynes, HC3N and HC5N, in the protocluster OMC2-FIR4. Because our Sun is thought to be born in a rich cluster, OMC2-FIR4 is one of the closest and best known representatives of the environment in which the Sun may have been born. We find a HC3N/HC5N abundance ratio across the source in the range ~ 1 - 30, with the smallest values (< 10) in FIR5 and in the Eastern region of FIR4. The ratios < 10 can be reproduced by chemical models only if: (1) the cosmic-ray ionisation rate $ζ$ is ~ $4 \times 10^{-14}$ s$^{-1}$; (2) the gaseous elemental ratio C/O is close to unity; (3) O and C are largely depleted. The large $ζ$ is comparable to that measured in FIR4 by previous works and was interpreted as due to a flux of energetic (> 10 MeV) particles from embedded sources. We suggest that these sources could lie East of FIR4 and FIR5. A temperature gradient across FIR4, with T decreasing by about 10 K, could also explain the observed change in the HC3N/HC5N line ratio, without the need of a cosmic ray ionisation rate gradient. However, even in this case, a high constant cosmic-ray ionisation rate (of the order of $10^{-14}$ s$^{-1}$) is necessary to reproduce the observations.

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arXiv2016

History of the solar-type protostar IRAS16293-2422 as told by the cyanopolyynes

Cyanopolyynes are chains of carbon atoms with an atom of hydrogen and a CN group on either side. They are detected almost everywhere in the ISM, as well as in comets. In the past, they have been used to constrain the age of some molecular clouds, since their abundance is predicted to be a strong function of time. We present an extensive study of the cyanopolyynes distribution in the solar-type protostar IRAS16293-2422 based on TIMASSS IRAM-30m observations. The goals are (i) to obtain a census of the cyanopolyynes in this source and of their isotopologues; (ii) to derive how their abundance varies across the protostar envelope; and (iii) to obtain constraints on the history of IRAS16293-2422. We detect several lines from HC3N and HC5N, and report the first detection of DC3N, in a solar-type protostar. We found that the HC3N abundance is roughly constant (~1.3x10^(-11)) in the outer cold envelope of IRAS16293-2422, and it increases by about a factor 100 in the inner region where Tdust>80K. The HC5N has an abundance similar to HC3N in the outer envelope and about a factor of ten lower in the inner region. The HC3N abundance derived in the inner region, and where the increase occurs, also provide strong constraints on the time taken for the dust to warm up to 80K, which has to be shorter than ~10^3-10^4yr. Finally, the cyanoacetylene deuteration is about 50\% in the outer envelope and <5$\% in the warm inner region. The relatively low deuteration in the warm region suggests that we are witnessing a fossil of the HC3N abundantly formed in the tenuous phase of the pre-collapse and then frozen into the grain mantles at a later phase. The accurate analysis of the cyanopolyynes in IRAS16293-2422 unveils an important part of its past story. It tells us that IRAS16293-2422 underwent a relatively fast (<10^5yr) collapse and a very fast (<10^3-10^4yr) warming up of the cold material to 80K.

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arXiv2015

Discovery of SiCSi in IRC+10216: A missing link between gas and dust carriers of SiC bonds

We report the discovery in space of a disilicon species, SiCSi, from observations between 80 and 350 GHz with the IRAM 30m radio telescope. Owing to the close coordination between laboratory experiments and astrophysics, 112 lines have now been detected in the carbon-rich star CWLeo. The derived frequencies yield improved rotational and centrifugal distortion constants up to sixth order. From the line profiles and interferometric maps with the Submillimeter Array, the bulk of the SiCSi emis- sion arises from a region of 6 arcseconds in radius. The derived abundance is comparable to that of SiC2. As expected from chemical equilibrium calculations, SiCSi and SiC2 are the most abundant species harboring a SiC bond in the dust formation zone and certainly both play a key role in the formation of SiC dust grains.

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arXiv2015

Shedding light on the formation of the pre-biotic molecule formamide with ASAI

Formamide (NH2CHO) has been proposed as a pre-biotic precursor with a key role in the emergence of life on Earth. While this molecule has been observed in space, most of its detections correspond to high-mass star-forming regions. Motivated by this lack of investigation in the low-mass regime, we searched for formamide, as well as isocyanic acid (HNCO), in 10 low- and intermediate-mass pre-stellar and protostellar objects. The present work is part of the IRAM Large Programme ASAI (Astrochemical Surveys At IRAM), which makes use of unbiased broadband spectral surveys at millimetre wavelengths. We detected HNCO in all the sources and NH2CHO in five of them. We derived their abundances and analysed them together with those reported in the literature for high-mass sources. For those sources with formamide detection, we found a tight and almost linear correlation between HNCO and NH2CHO abundances, with their ratio being roughly constant -between 3 and 10- across 6 orders of magnitude in luminosity. This suggests the two species are chemically related. The sources without formamide detection, which are also the coldest and devoid of hot corinos, fall well off the correlation, displaying a much larger amount of HNCO relative to NH2CHO. Our results suggest that, while HNCO can be formed in the gas phase during the cold stages of star formation, NH2CHO forms most efficiently on the mantles of dust grains at these temperatures, where it remains frozen until the temperature rises enough to sublimate the icy grain mantles. We propose hydrogenation of HNCO as a likely formation route leading to NH2CHO.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

The census of complex organic molecules in the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) are considered crucial molecules, since they are connected with organic chemistry, at the basis of the terrestrial life. More pragmatically, they are molecules in principle difficult to synthetize in the harsh interstellar environments and, therefore, a crucial test for astrochemical models. Current models assume that several COMs are synthesised on the lukewarm grain surfaces ($\gtrsim$30-40 K), and released in the gas phase at dust temperatures $\gtrsim$100 K. However, recent detections of COMs in $\lesssim$20 K gas demonstrate that we still need important pieces to complete the puzzle of the COMs formation. We present here a complete census of the oxygen and nitrogen bearing COMs, previously detected in different ISM regions, towards the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422. The census was obtained from the millimeter-submillimeter unbiased spectral survey TIMASSS. Six COMs, out of the 29 searched for, were detected: methyl cyanide, ketene, acetaldehyde, formamide, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate. The multifrequency analysis of the last five COMs provides clear evidence that they are present in the cold ($\lesssim$30 K) envelope of IRAS16293-2422, with abundances 0.03-2 $\times 10^{-10}$. Our data do not allow to support the hypothesis that the COMs abundance increases with increasing dust temperature in the cold envelope, as expected if COMs were predominately formed on the lukewarm grain surfaces. Finally, when considering also other ISM sources, we find a strong correlation over five orders of magnitude, between the methyl formate and dimethyl ether and methyl formate and formamide abundances, which may point to a link between these two couples of species, in cold and warm gas.

astro-ph.SR↗