Herschel-HIFI observations of H2O, NH3 and N2H+ toward high-mass starless and proto-stellar clumps identified by the Hi-GAL survey

Our present understanding of high-mass star formation still remains very schematic. In particular, it is not yet clear how much of the difference between low-mass and high-mass star formation occurs during the earliest star formation phases. The chemical characteristics of massive cold clumps, and the comparison with those of their low-mass counterparts, could provide crucial clues about the exact role that chemistry plays in differentiating the early phases of low-mass and high-mass star formation. Water, in particular, is a unique probe of physical and chemical conditions in star-forming regions. Using the HIFI instrument of Herschel we have observed the ortho-NH3 (1_0-0_0) (572GHz), ortho-H2O (1_10-1_01) (557GHz) and N2H+ (6-5) (559GHz) lines toward a sample of high-mass starless and proto-stellar clumps selected from the "Herschel} Infrared Galactic Plane Survey" (Hi-GAL). We compare our results to previous studies of low-mass and high-mass proto-stellar objects. At least one of the three molecular lines was detected in 4 (out of 35) and 7 (out of 17) objects in the l=59deg and l=30deg galactic regions, respectively. All detected sources are proto-stellar. The water spectra are complex and consist of several kinematic components, identified through a Gaussian decomposition, and in a few sources inverse and regular P-Cygni profiles have been detected. All water line profiles of the l=59deg region are dominated by a broad Gaussian emission feature, indicating that the bulk of the water emission arises in outflows. No such broad emission is detected toward the l=30deg objects. The ammonia line in some cases also shows line wings and an inverse P-Cygni profile, thus confirming that NH3 rotational transitions can be used to probe the dynamics of high-mass star forming regions. Both bolometric and water line luminosity increase with the continuum temperature.Comment: This paper includes 7 main figures and 6 tables, in addition to the figures with the spectra of the individual sources which are presented as on-line material. Accepted for publication on Astronomy and Astrophysic

High SiO abundance in the HH212 protostellar jet

Previous SiO maps of the innermost regions of HH212 set strong constraints on the structure and origin of this jet. They rule out a fast wide-angle wind, and tentatively favor a magneto-centrifugal disk wind launched out to 0.6 AU. We aim to assess the SiO content at the base of the HH212 jet to set an independent constraint on the location of the jet launch zone with respect to the dust sublimation radius. We present the first sub-arcsecond (0"44x0"96) CO map of the HH212 jet base, obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Combining this with previous SiO(5-4) data, we infer the CO(2-1) opacity and mass-flux in the high-velocity jet and arrive at a much tighter lower limit to the SiO abundance than possible from the (optically thick) SiO emission alone. Gas-phase SiO at high velocity contains at least 10% of the elemental silicon if the jet is dusty, and at least 40% if the jet is dust-free, if CO and SiO have similar excitation temperatures. Such a high SiO content is challenging for current chemical models of both dust-free winds and dusty interstellar shocks. Updated chemical models (equatorial dust-free winds, highly magnetized dusty shocks) and observations of higher J CO lines are required to elucidate the dust content and launch radius of the HH212 high-velocity jet.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The water trail from the cradle of a young Sun to Earth-like planets

El agua es un ingrediente crucial para la vida. Una de las áreas de investigación más fascinantes en el campo de la astrobiología y la astroquímica es la del origen del agua sobre la Tierra. Sabemos que nuestros océanos contienen una cantidad de agua igual a 3 diezmilésimas de la masa terrestre. Sin embargo, si consideramos también el agua presente bajo la costra terrestre, el total podría aumentar a entre 10 y 50 veces más. Existen muchas cuestiones por resolver, como por ejemplo: ¿Cuándo y cómo apareció el agua sobre la Tierra? ¿Nuestro planeta es un caso especial o hay agua, y posiblemente vida, en otros planetas de nuestra Galaxia? Con más de 1000 exoplanetas descubiertos y las estadísticas que indican que cada estrella alberga al menos un planeta, la búsqueda de agua en el universo es cada vez más urgente

First Abundance Measurement of Organic Molecules in the Atmosphere of HH 212 Protostellar Disk

HH 212 is one of the well-studied protostellar systems, showing the first vertically resolved disk with a warm atmosphere around the central protostar. Here we report a detection of 9 organic molecules (including newly detected ketene, formic acid, deuterated acetonitrile, methyl formate, and ethanol) in the disk atmosphere, confirming that the disk atmosphere is, for HH 212, the chemically rich component, identified before at a lower resolution as a "hot-corino". More importantly, we report the first systematic survey and abundance measurement of organic molecules in the disk atmosphere within $\sim$ 40 au of the central protostar. The relative abundances of these molecules are similar to those in the hot corinos around other protostars and in Comet Lovejoy. These molecules can be either (i) originally formed on icy grains and then desorbed into gas phase or (ii) quickly formed in the gas phase using simpler species ejected from the dust mantles. The abundances and spatial distributions of the molecules provide strong constraints on models of their formation and transport in star formation. These molecules are expected to form even more complex organic molecules needed for life and deeper observations are needed to find them.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

A theoretical investigation of the reaction between the amidogen, NH, and the ethyl, C2H5, radicals: a possible gas-phase formation route of interstellar and planetary ethanimine

The reaction between the amidogen, NH, radical and the ethyl, C2H5, radical has been investigated by performing electronic structure calculations of the underlying doublet potential energy surface. Rate coefficients and product branching ratios have also been estimated by combining capture and RRKM calculations. According to our results, the reaction is very fast, close to the gas-kinetics limit. However, the main product channel, with a yield of ca. 86-88% in the range of temperatures investigated, is the one leading to methanimine and the methyl radical. The channels leading to the two E-, Z- stereoisomers of ethanimine account only for ca. 5-7% each. The resulting ratio [E-CH3CHNH]/[Z-CH3CHNH] is ca. 1.2, that is a value rather lower than that determined in the Green Bank Telescope PRIMOS radio astronomy survey spectra of Sagittarius B2 North (ca. 3). Considering that ice chemistry would produce essentially only the most stable isomer, a possible conclusion is that the observed [E-CH3CHNH]/[Z-CH3CHNH] ratio is compatible with a combination of gas-phase and grain chemistry. More observational and laboratory data are needed to definitely address this issue

The Chemistry of Protostellar Jet-Disk Systems

The birth of a Sun-like star is a complex game played by several participants whose respective roles are not yet entirely clear. On the one hand, the star-to-be accretes matter from a collapsing envelope. The gravitational energy released in the process heats up the material surrounding the protostar, creating warm regions enriched by interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs, at least 6 atoms) called hot-corinos. On the other hand, the presence of angular momentum and magnetic fields leads to two consequences: (i) the formation of circumstellar disks; and (ii) substantial episodes of matter ejection, as e.g. collimated jets. Thanks to the combination of the high-sensitivities and high-angular resolu- tions provided by the advent of new telescopes such as ALMA and NOEMA, it is now possible to image in details the earliest stages of the Sun-like star formation, thus inspecting the inner ( < 50 AU from the protostar) jet. at these spatial scales a proper study of jets has to take into account also the effects connected with the accreting disk. In other words, it is time to study the protostellar jet-disk system as a whole. Several still unanswered questions can be addressed. What is the origin of the chemically enriched hot corinos: are they jet-driven shocked regions? What is the origin of the ejections: are they due to disk or stellar winds? Shocks are precious tool to attack these questions, given they enrich the gas phase with the species deposited onto the dust mantles and/or locked in the refractory dust cores. Basically, we have to deal with two kind of shocks: (i) high-velocity shocks produced by protostellar jets, and (ii) slow accretion shocks located close to the centrifugal barrier of the accretion disks. Both shocks are factories of iCOMs, which can be then efficiently used to follow both the kinematics and the chemistry of the inner protostellar systems. With this in mind, we will discuss recent results obtained in the framework of different observational campaigns at mm and sub-mm wavelengths

Testing circumstellar disk lifetimes in young embedded clusters associated with the Vela Molecular Ridge

Context. The Vela Molecular Ridge hosts a number of young embedded star clusters in the same evolutionary stage. Aims. The main aim of the present work is testing whether the fraction of members with a circumstellar disk in a sample of clusters in the cloud D of the Vela Molecular Ridge, is consistent with relations derived for larger samples of star clusters with an age spread. Besides, we want to constrain the age of the young embedded star clusters associated with cloud D. Methods. We carried out L (3.78 microns) photometry on images of six young embedded star clusters associated with cloud D of the Vela Molecular Ridge, taken with ISAAC at the VLT. These data are complemented with the available HKs photometry. The 6 clusters are roughly of the same size and appear to be in the same evolutionary stage. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk was measured in each cluster by counting the fraction of sources displaying a NIR excess in colour-colour (HKsL) diagrams. Results. The L photometry allowed us to identify the NIR counterparts of the IRAS sources associated with the clusters. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk appears to be constant within errors for the 6 clusters. There is a hint that this is lower for the most massive stars. The age of the clusters is constrained to ~1-2 Myr. Conclusions. The fraction of stars with a circumstellar disk in the observed sample is consistent with the relations derived from larger samples of star clusters and with other age estimates for cloud D. The fraction may be lower for the most massive stars. Our results agree with a scenario where all intermediate and low-mass stars form with a disk, whose lifetime is shorter for higher mass stars.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

A high resolution study of complex organic molecules in hot cores

We present the results of a line identification analysis using data from the IRAM Plateau de Bure Inferferometer, focusing on six massive star-forming hot cores: G31.41+0.31, G29.96-0.02, G19.61-0.23, G10.62-0.38, G24.78+0.08A1 and G24.78+0.08A2. We identify several transitions of vibrationally excited methyl formate (HCOOCH$_3$) for the first time in these objects as well as transitions of other complex molecules, including ethyl cyanide (C$_2$H$_5$CN), and isocyanic acid (HNCO). We also postulate a detection of one transition of glycolaldehyde (CH$_2$(OH)CHO) in two new hot cores. We find G29.96-0.02, G19.61-0.23, G24.78+0.08A1 and 24.78+0.08A2 to be chemically very similar. G31.41+0.31, however, is chemically different: it manifests a larger chemical inventory and has significantly larger column densities. We suggest that it may represent a different evolutionary stage to the other hot cores in the sample, or it may surround a star with a higher mass. We derive column densities for methyl formate in G31.41+0.31, using the rotation diagram method, of $\times$10$^{17}$ cm$^{-2}$ and a T$_{rot}$ of $\sim$170 K. For G29.96-0.02, G24.78+0.08A1 and G24.78+0.08A2, glycolaldehyde, methyl formate and methyl cyanide all seem to trace the same material and peak at roughly the same position towards the dust emission peak. For G31.41+0.31, however, glycolaldehyde shows a different distribution to methyl formate and methyl cyanide and seems to trace the densest, most compact inner part of hot cores.Comment: Accepted to MNRA

Interstellar dimethyl ether gas-phase formation: a quantum chemistry and kinetics study

Dimethyl ether is one of the most abundant interstellar complex organic molecules. Yet its formation route remains elusive. In this work, we have performed electronic structure and kinetics calculations to derive the rate coefficients for two ion-molecule reactions recently proposed as a gas-phase formation route of dimethyl ether in interstellar objects, namely CH$_3$OH + CH$_3$OH$_2^+$ $\rightarrow$ (CH$_3$)$_2$OH$^+$ + H$_2$O followed by (CH$_3$)$_2$OH$^+$ + NH$_3$ $\rightarrow$ CH$_3$OCH$_3$ + NH$_4^+$. A comparison with previous experimental rate coefficients for the reaction CH$_3$OH + CH$_3$OH$_2^+$ sustains the accuracy of the present calculations and allow a more reliable extrapolation at the low temperatures of interest in interstellar objects (10-100 K). The rate coefficient for the reaction (CH$_3$)$_2$OH$^+$ + NH$_3$ is, instead, provided for the first time ever. The rate coefficients derived in this work essentially confirm the prediction by Taquet et al. (2016) concerning dimethyl ether formation in hot cores/corinos. Nevertheless, this formation route cannot be efficient in cold objects (like prestellar cores) where dimethyl ether is also detected, because ammonia has a very low abundance in those environments

The genealogical tree of ethanol: gas-phase formation of glycolaldehyde, acetic acid and formic acid

Despite the harsh conditions of the interstellar medium, chemistry thrives in it, especially in star forming regions where several interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs) have been detected. Yet, how these species are synthesised is a mystery. The majority of current models claim that this happens on interstellar grain surfaces. Nevertheless, evidence is mounting that neutral gas-phase chemistry plays an important role. In this article, we propose a new scheme for the gas-phase synthesis of glycolaldehyde, a species with a prebiotic potential and for which no gas-phase formation route was previously known. In the proposed scheme, the ancestor is ethanol and the glycolaldehyde sister species are acetic acid (another iCOM with unknown gas-phase formation routes) and formic acid. For the reactions of the new scheme with no available data, we have performed electronic structure and kinetics calculations deriving rate coefficients and branching ratios. Furthermore, after a careful review of the chemistry literature, we revised the available chemical networks, adding and correcting several reactions related to glycolaldehyde, acetic acid and formic acid. The new chemical network has been used in an astrochemical model to predict the abundance of glycolaldehyde, acetic acid and formic acid. The predicted abundance of glycolaldehyde depends on the ethanol abundance in the gas phase and is in excellent agreement with the measured one in hot corinos and shock sites. Our new model overpredicts the abundance of acetic acid and formic acid by about a factor of ten, which might imply a yet incomplete reaction network