Astrochemistry

Identification Of The Simplest Sugar-like Molecule Glycolaldehyde Towards The Hot Molecular Core G358.93-0.03 MM1

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
astro-ph.GA
August 30, 2023
Filed under , , , , , , ,
Identification Of The Simplest Sugar-like Molecule Glycolaldehyde Towards The Hot Molecular Core G358.93-0.03 MM1
Continuum emission image of high-mass star-formation region G358.93–0.03 at a wavelength of 988 µm. The synthesized beam size (white circle) of the continuum image is 0.412′′×0.363′′. The sub-millimeter continuum sources MM1–MM8 are located in the massive star-formation region G358.93–0.03. The contour (white colour) levels start at 3σ where σ is the RMS of the continuum emission image and the contour levels increase by a factor of √ 2. — astro-ph.GA

Glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO) is the simplest monosaccharide sugar in the interstellar medium, and it is directly involved in the origin of life via the ‘RNA world’ hypothesis.

We present the first detection of glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO) towards the hot molecular core G358.93-0.03 MM1 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The calculated column density of CH2OHCHO towards G358.93-0.03 MM1 is (1.52±0.9)×1016 cm−2 with an excitation temperature of 300±68.5 K. The derived fractional abundance of CH2OHCHO with respect to H2 is (4.90±2.92)×10−9, which is consistent with that estimated by existing two-phase warm-up chemical models.

We discuss the possible formation pathways of CH2OHCHO within the context of hot molecular cores and hot corinos and find that CH2OHCHO is likely formed via the reactions of radical HCO and radical CH2OH on the grain surface of G358.93-0.03 MM1.

Arijit Manna, Sabyasachi Pal, Serena Viti, Sekhar Sinha

Comments: 12 pages, 4 figures, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2308.14454 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2308.14454v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
Journal reference: MNRAS, 525, 2229-2240 (2023)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2185
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Arijit Manna
[v1] Mon, 28 Aug 2023 09:43:40 UTC (5,165 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.14454
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) 🖖🏻

Follow on Twitter
MORE FROM Astrochemistry