NGC 7538 IRS 1 Archives - Astrobiology

25.3 µm map of the NGC 7538 region from SOFIA/Faint Object infraRed Camera (FORCAST; Herter et al. 2013) archival data (Cycle 1 Program 0034, PI A. G. G. M. Tielens). Our target and brightest source, IRS 1, is at the centre with offset 0′′, 0′′ corresponding to α(J2000) = 23:13:45.37, δ(J2000) = +61:28:10.5. The positions of IRS 1 and the dimmer sources (IRS 2, IRS 3, IRS 1E, and IRS 1SE) are given by Sandell et al. (2020). In solid green is the 8.7′′×3.2′′ EXES slit from this work’s 23.9 µm setting (Table A1), and in dashed blue the 14′′ and 18′′ JCMT beams (van der Tak et al. 2000; Bisschop et al. 2007) whose CH3OH results we will use for a comparison (Section 5.1). au scale uses a distance of 2.65 kpc (Moscadelli et al. 2009). Note the logarithmic scale for the flux, which exaggerates the brightness of the non-IRS 1 sources. -- astro-ph.GA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

The Discovery Of 25 um Interstellar Methanol

by Keith CowingAugust 4, 2025August 4, 2025

We present the first astrophysical detection of methanol (CH3OH) in the torsional band near 25 um.