La deutération de l'eau dans les régions de formation stellaire : apport des données spectroscopiques Herschel/HIFI

L'eau (H2O) est une des molécules les plus abondantes du milieu interstellaire. En plus d'être un ingrédient nécessaire à l'apparition de la Vie, elle joue également un rôle important dans le processus de formation stellaire à travers le refroidissement du gaz chaud et contrôle aussi la chimie de nombreuses autres espèces, que ce soit en phase gazeuse ou à la surface des grains. Etudier sa forme deutérée HDO constitue un moyen unique, à travers l'estimation du rapport HDO/H2O, de contraindre les mécanismes de formation de l'eau ainsi que de mieux comprendre l'origine de l'eau des océans terrestres. Les résultats récents obtenus avec le satellite Herschel montrent en effet que le rapport HDO/H2O observé dans les comètes est similaire à celui mesuré dans les océans (~ 1.5 10-4), suggérant que l'eau pourrait avoir été apportée sur Terre par les comètes lors de grands bombardements (Hartogh et al. 2011). Dans cette thèse, je me suis intéressée à l'étude de l'eau deutérée durant les premières étapes de la formation stellaire, la phase de Classe 0, qui précèdent la formation du disque proto-planétaire menant à la naissance des planètes et des comètes. En modélisant avec un code 1D de transfert radiatif hors-Equilibre Thermodynamique Local les profils des nombreuses raies de HDO et H218O observées avec l'instrument HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for Far-Infrared) de l'Observatoire Spatial Herschel et des télescopes terrestres (IRAM, JCMT), j'ai déterminé des rapports HDO/H2O de la proto-étoile de type solaire IRAS 16293-2422 de l'ordre de 2% dans le hot corino, la partie interne de l'enveloppe suffisamment chaude (T>100 K) pour que les molécules d'eau collées à la surface des grains désorbent en phase gazeuse, et de 0.5% dans l'enveloppe externe plus froide. Grâce à ce travail (Coutens et al. 2012), la présence en avant-plan d'une couche d'absorption riche en eau a été mise en évidence observationnellement pour la première fois. Elle pourrait être due à des processus de photo-désorption des molécules d'eau piégées dans les manteaux de glace des grains, en bordure de nuage moléculaire, par le champ interstellaire UV. Les estimations des rapports HDO/H2O ainsi que D2O/HDO dans cette source permettent de contraindre les conditions de formation de l'eau dans ce type d'objet et suggèrent notamment que l'eau se serait probablement formée avant l'effondrement gravitationnel du nuage. Cette étude a ensuite été étendue à d'autres proto-étoiles de type solaire NGC 333 IRAS4A et NGC1333 IRAS4B pour lesquelles j'ai estimé les abondances d'eau deutérée et constaté qu'une couche d'absorption étendue entourait également ces sources. Les rapports HDO/H2O élevés de la proto-étoile IRAS 16293-2422 suggèrent que des mécanismes nécessaires à la diminution de ces rapports isotopiques prennent place entre l'étape de Classe 0 et la formation des comètes. Il faudra néanmoins étudier un plus grand échantillon de proto-étoiles pour savoir si cette tendance est générale ou non. Les abondances de HDO obtenues dans les proto-étoiles NGC1333 IRAS4A et NGC1333 IRAS4B serviront donc à de prochaines estimations des rapports HDO/H2O. Enfin, je me suis également attachée à étudier l'eau deutérée dans des sources proto-stellaires beaucoup plus massives et plus lumineuses que les proto-étoiles de type solaire et présente ici le cas de la région HII ultra-compacte G34.26+0.15.Water (H2O) is one of the most abundant molecules in the interstellar medium. In addition to being a primordial ingredient in the emergence of life, this species plays an essential role in the process of star formation through the cooling of warm gas. It also controls the chemistry for many species, either in the gas phase or on the grain surfaces. Studying its deuterated form HDO is a unique opportunity, through the estimation of the HDO/H2O ratio, to constrain the mechanisms of water formation and to better understand the origin of water contained in terrestrial oceans. Indeed, recent results obtained with the Herschel satellite show that the HDO/H2O ratio observed in comets is similar to the value measured in oceans (~ 1.5 10-4), which suggests that comets could have brought a large fraction to Earth to form the oceans during heavy bombardments (Hartogh et al. 2011). In this thesis, I was interested in the study of deuterated water in the first stages of star formation, the Class 0 stage, which precede the formation of the protoplanetary disk leading to the birth of comets and planets. Through a 1D non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium radiative transfer modeling of the line profiles of the numerous HDO and H218O transitions detected with the HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for Far-Infrared) instrument onboard the Herschel Space Observatory and ground-based telescopes (IRAM, JCMT), I determined that the HDO/H2O ratios of the solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422 was about 2% in the hot corino, the inner part of the protostellar envelope sufficiently warm (T > 100 K) to desorb in gas phase the water molecules trapped in the icy grain mantles, and about 0.5% in the colder part of the envelope. This study (Coutens et al. 2012) also allowed me to show that an absorbing layer rich in water surrounds the protostar. This layer could be produced by the photo-desorption through the UV field of the water molecules frozen on the grains, on the edges of the molecular cloud. The HDO/H2O ratios as well as the D2O/HDO ratios determined in IRAS 16293-2422 enable to constrain the conditions of water formation in this kind of objects and in particular suggest that water would be formed before the gravitational collapse of the cloud. This study was then extended to other solar-type protostars NGC1333 IRAS4A and NGC1333 IRAS4B, for which I estimated the abundances of deuterated water and noticed that an extended absorbing layer also surrounds these sources. The high HDO/H2O ratios determined in IRAS 16293-2422 suggest that mechanisms are required between the Class 0 stage and the comets formation to decrease these isotopic ratios. It is however necessary to study a larger sample of protostars to know if this trend is observed in most of the sources. The HDO abundances obtained in NGC1333 IRAS4A and NGC1333 IRAS4B will consequently be useful to estimate their HDO/H2O ratios. Finally, I also studied deuterated water in protostellar objects more massive and more luminous than solar-type protostars and show here the case of the ultra-compact HII region G34.26+0.15

A study of methanol and silicon monoxide production through episodic explosions of grain mantles in the Central Molecular Zone

Methanol (CH$_3$OH) is found to be abundant and widespread towards the Central Molecular Zone, the inner few hundred parsecs of our Galaxy. Its origin is, however, not fully understood. It was proposed that the high cosmic ray ionisation rate in this region could lead to a more efficient non-thermal desorption of this species formed on grain surfaces, but it would also mean that this species is destroyed in a relatively short timescale. In a first step, we run chemical models with a high cosmic ray ionisation rate and find that this scenario can only reproduce the lowest abundances of methanol derived in this region ($\sim$10$^{-9}$-10$^{-8}$). In a second step, we investigate another scenario based on episodic explosions of grain mantles. We find a good agreement between the predicted abundances of methanol and the observations. We find that the dominant route for the formation of methanol is through hydrogenation of CO on the grains followed by the desorption due to the grain mantle explosion. The cyclic aspect of this model can explain the widespread presence of methanol without requiring any additional mechanism. We also model silicon monoxide (SiO), another species detected in several molecular clouds of the Galactic Centre. An agreement is found with observations for a high depletion of Si (Si/H $\sim$ 10$^{-8}$) with respect to the solar abundance.Comment: Accepted in MNRA

High D2_2O/HDO ratio in the inner regions of the low-mass protostar NGC1333 IRAS2A

Water plays a crucial role both in the interstellar medium and on Earth. To constrain its formation mechanisms and its evolution through the star formation process, the determination of the water deuterium fractionation ratios is particularly suitable. Previous studies derived HDO/H$_2$O ratios in the warm inner regions of low-mass protostars. We here report a detection of the D$_2$O 1$_{1,0}$-1$_{0,1}$ transition toward the low-mass protostar NGC1333 IRAS2A with the Plateau de Bure interferometer: this represents the first interferometric detection of D$_2$O - and only the second solar-type protostar for which this isotopologue is detected. Using the observations of the HDO 5$_{4,2}$-6$_{3,3}$ transition simultaneously detected and three other HDO lines previously observed, we show that the HDO line fluxes are well reproduced with a single excitation temperature of 218$\pm$21 K and a source size of $\sim$0.5 arcsec. The D$_2$O/HDO ratio is $\sim$(1.2$\pm$0.5) $\times$ 10$^{-2}$, while the use of previous H$_2^{18}$O observations give an HDO/H$_2$O ratio of $\sim$(1.7$\pm$0.8) $\times$ 10$^{-3}$, i.e. a factor of 7 lower than the D$_2$O/HDO ratio. These results contradict the predictions of current grain surface chemical models and indicate that either the surface deuteration processes are poorly understood or that both sublimation of grain mantles and water formation at high temperatures ($\gtrsim$230 K) take place in the inner regions of this source. In the second scenario, the thermal desorption of the grain mantles would explain the high D$_2$O/HDO ratio, while water formation at high temperature would explain significant extra production of H$_2$O leading to a decrease of the HDO/H$_2$O ratio.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 12 pages, 2 figure

On the Formation of Deuterated Methyl Formate in Hot Corinos

Methyl formate, HCOOCH$_3$, and many of its isotopologues have been detected in astrophysical regions with considerable abundances. However, the recipe for the formation of this molecule and its isotopologues is not yet known. In this work, we attempt to investigate, theoretically, the successful recipe for the formation of interstellar HCOOCH$_3$ and its deuterated isotopologues. We used the gas-grain chemical model, UCLCHEM, to examine the possible routes of formation of methyl formate on grain surfaces and in the gas-phase in low-mass star-forming regions. Our models show that radical-radical association on grains are necessary to explain the observed abundance of DCOOCH$_3$ in the protostar IRAS~16293--2422. H-D substitution reactions on grains significantly enhance the abundances of HCOOCHD$_2$, DCOOCHD$_2$, and HCOOCD$_3$. The observed abundance of HCOOCHD$_2$ in IRAS 16293--2422 can only be reproduced if H-D substitution reactions are taken into account. However, HCOOCH$_2$D remain underestimated in all of our models. The deuteration of methyl formate appears to be more complex than initially thought. Additional studies, both experimentally and theoretically, are needed for a better understanding of the interstellar formation of these species.Comment: 13 pages , 3 figures, 5 tables , accepted for publications in MNRA

A high HDO/H2_{2}O ratio in the Class I protostar L1551 IRS5

Water is a very abundant molecule in star-forming regions. Its deuterium fractionation is an important tool for understanding its formation and evolution during the star and planet formation processes. While the HDO/H$_2$O ratio has been determined toward several Class 0 protostars and comets, the number of studies toward Class I protostars is limited. We aim to study the water deuteration toward the Class I binary protostar L1551 IRS5 and to investigate the effect of evolutionary stage and environment on variations in the water D/H ratio. Observations were made using the NOEMA interferometer. The HDO 3$_{1,2}$-2$_{2,1}$ transition at 225.9 GHz and the H$_2^{18}$O 3$_{1,3}$-2$_{2,0}$ transition at 203.4 GHz were covered with a spatial resolution of 0.5'' $\times$ 0.8'', while the HDO 4$_{2,2}$-4$_{2,3}$ transition at 143.7 GHz was observed with a resolution of 2.0'' $\times$ 2.5''. We used both LTE and non-LTE models. The three transitions are detected. The line profiles display two peaks, one at $\sim$6 km s$^{-1}$ and one at $\sim$9 km s$^{-1}$. We derive an HDO/H$_2$O ratio of (2.1 $\pm$ 0.8) $\times$ 10$^{-3}$ for the redshifted component and a lower limit of $>$ 0.3 $\times$ 10$^{-3}$ for the blueshifted component due to the blending with the redshifted CH$_3$OCH$_3$ emission. The HDO/H$_2$O in L1551 IRS5 is similar to the ratios in isolated Class 0 sources and to the Class I V883 Ori, while it is significantly higher than in the clustered Class 0 sources and the comets. This suggests that the chemistry of protostars in low source densities clouds share more similarities with the isolated sources than the protostars of very dense clusters. If Class 0 protostars with few sources around and isolated Class 0 objects are comparable in the HDO/H$_2$O ratio, it would mean that there is little water reprocessing from the Class 0 to Class I protostellar stage.Comment: Accepted in A&A, 10 pages, 8 figure

The prebiotic molecular inventory of Serpens SMM1: II. The building blocks of peptide chains

Laboratory astrophysics and astrochemistr

PDRs4All IV. An embarrassment of riches: Aromatic infrared bands in the Orion Bar

(Abridged) Mid-infrared observations of photodissociation regions (PDRs) are dominated by strong emission features called aromatic infrared bands (AIBs). The most prominent AIBs are found at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.2 $\mu$m. The most sensitive, highest-resolution infrared spectral imaging data ever taken of the prototypical PDR, the Orion Bar, have been captured by JWST. We provide an inventory of the AIBs found in the Orion Bar, along with mid-IR template spectra from five distinct regions in the Bar: the molecular PDR, the atomic PDR, and the HII region. We use JWST NIRSpec IFU and MIRI MRS observations of the Orion Bar from the JWST Early Release Science Program, PDRs4All (ID: 1288). We extract five template spectra to represent the morphology and environment of the Orion Bar PDR. The superb sensitivity and the spectral and spatial resolution of these JWST observations reveal many details of the AIB emission and enable an improved characterization of their detailed profile shapes and sub-components. While the spectra are dominated by the well-known AIBs at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.2, and 12.7 $\mu$m, a wealth of weaker features and sub-components are present. We report trends in the widths and relative strengths of AIBs across the five template spectra. These trends yield valuable insight into the photochemical evolution of PAHs, such as the evolution responsible for the shift of 11.2 $\mu$m AIB emission from class B$_{11.2}$ in the molecular PDR to class A$_{11.2}$ in the PDR surface layers. This photochemical evolution is driven by the increased importance of FUV processing in the PDR surface layers, resulting in a "weeding out" of the weakest links of the PAH family in these layers. For now, these JWST observations are consistent with a model in which the underlying PAH family is composed of a few species: the so-called 'grandPAHs'.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, to appear in A&

PDRs4All II: JWST's NIR and MIR imaging view of the Orion Nebula

The JWST has captured the most detailed and sharpest infrared images ever taken of the inner region of the Orion Nebula, the nearest massive star formation region, and a prototypical highly irradiated dense photo-dissociation region (PDR). We investigate the fundamental interaction of far-ultraviolet photons with molecular clouds. The transitions across the ionization front (IF), dissociation front (DF), and the molecular cloud are studied at high-angular resolution. These transitions are relevant to understanding the effects of radiative feedback from massive stars and the dominant physical and chemical processes that lead to the IR emission that JWST will detect in many Galactic and extragalactic environments. Due to the proximity of the Orion Nebula and the unprecedented angular resolution of JWST, these data reveal that the molecular cloud borders are hyper structured at small angular scales of 0.1-1" (0.0002-0.002 pc or 40-400 au at 414 pc). A diverse set of features are observed such as ridges, waves, globules and photoevaporated protoplanetary disks. At the PDR atomic to molecular transition, several bright features are detected that are associated with the highly irradiated surroundings of the dense molecular condensations and embedded young star. Toward the Orion Bar PDR, a highly sculpted interface is detected with sharp edges and density increases near the IF and DF. This was predicted by previous modeling studies, but the fronts were unresolved in most tracers. A complex, structured, and folded DF surface was traced by the H2 lines. This dataset was used to revisit the commonly adopted 2D PDR structure of the Orion Bar. JWST provides us with a complete view of the PDR, all the way from the PDR edge to the substructured dense region, and this allowed us to determine, in detail, where the emission of the atomic and molecular lines, aromatic bands, and dust originate

PDRs4All III: JWST's NIR spectroscopic view of the Orion Bar

(Abridged) We investigate the impact of radiative feedback from massive stars on their natal cloud and focus on the transition from the HII region to the atomic PDR (crossing the ionisation front (IF)), and the subsequent transition to the molecular PDR (crossing the dissociation front (DF)). We use high-resolution near-IR integral field spectroscopic data from NIRSpec on JWST to observe the Orion Bar PDR as part of the PDRs4All JWST Early Release Science Program. The NIRSpec data reveal a forest of lines including, but not limited to, HeI, HI, and CI recombination lines, ionic lines, OI and NI fluorescence lines, Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs including aromatic CH, aliphatic CH, and their CD counterparts), CO2 ice, pure rotational and ro-vibrational lines from H2, and ro-vibrational lines HD, CO, and CH+, most of them detected for the first time towards a PDR. Their spatial distribution resolves the H and He ionisation structure in the Huygens region, gives insight into the geometry of the Bar, and confirms the large-scale stratification of PDRs. We observe numerous smaller scale structures whose typical size decreases with distance from Ori C and IR lines from CI, if solely arising from radiative recombination and cascade, reveal very high gas temperatures consistent with the hot irradiated surface of small-scale dense clumps deep inside the PDR. The H2 lines reveal multiple, prominent filaments which exhibit different characteristics. This leaves the impression of a "terraced" transition from the predominantly atomic surface region to the CO-rich molecular zone deeper in. This study showcases the discovery space created by JWST to further our understanding of the impact radiation from young stars has on their natal molecular cloud and proto-planetary disk, which touches on star- and planet formation as well as galaxy evolution.Comment: 52 pages, 30 figures, submitted to A&