Astrochemistry

The Spatial Distribution Of An Aromatic Molecule, C6H5CN, In The Cold Dark Cloud TMC-1

By Keith Cowing

Press Release

astro-ph.GA

May 25, 2023

Filed under astro-ph.GA, astrochemistry, Benzonitrile, Interstellar, TMC-1

The Spatial Distribution Of An Aromatic Molecule, C6H5CN, In The Cold Dark Cloud TMC-1 — Colour plot of spatial distribution of the integrated intensity between 5.3 and 6.5 km s−1 of the stacked lines of C6H5CN. The colour scale is in mK km s−1 . The sampling of the data is 20′′ and the integrating area in each position corresponds to a circle of 20′′ of radius. The black dot indicates the centre of the map, which corresponds to the position observed with the QUIJOTE line survey — astro-ph.GA

We present a highly sensitive 2D line survey of TMC-1 obtained with the Yebes 40m radio telescope in the Q-band (31.13-49.53 GHz). These maps cover a region of 320 arcsec x 320 arcsec centred on the position of the QUIJOTE line survey with a spatial sampling of 20 arcsec.

The region covering 240 arcsec x 240 arcsec, where a longer integration time was used, shows a homogenous sensitivity of 2-4 mK across the band. We present in this work the first determination of the spatial extent of benzonitrile (C6H5CN), which follows that of cyanopolyynes rather well, but differs significantly from that of the radicals CnH and CnN.

We definitively conclude that aromatic species in TMC-1 are formed from chemical reactions involving smaller species in the densest zones of the cloud.

J. Cernicharo, B. Tercero, N. Marcelino, M. Agundez, P. de Vicente

Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2305.15315 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2305.15315v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
Submission history
From: Marcelino Agundez
[v1] Wed, 24 May 2023 16:32:59 UTC (1,861 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.15315
Astrobiology, Astrochemistry

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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