The Distribution of Water Emission in M17SW

We present a 17-point map of the M17SW cloud core in the 1_{10}-1_{01} transition of ortho-water at 557 GHz obtained with the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite. Water emission was detected in 11 of the 17 observed positions. The line widths of the water emission vary between 4 and 9 km s^{-1}, and are similar to other emission lines that arise in the M17SW core. A direct comparison is made between the spatial extent of the water emission and the ^{13}CO J = 5\to4 emission; the good agreement suggests that the water emission arises in the same warm, dense gas as the ^{13}CO emission. A spectrum of the H_2^{18}O line was also obtained at the center position of the cloud core, but no emission was detected. We estimate that the average abundance of ortho-water relative to H_2 within the M17 dense core is approximately 1x10^{-9}, 30 times smaller than the average for the Orion core. Toward the H II region/molecular cloud interface in M17SW the ortho-water abundance may be about 5 times larger than in the dense core.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses aastex.cls, emulateapj5.sty (included), and apjfonts.sty (included

Water Abundance in Molecular Cloud Cores

We present Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) observations of the 1_{10}-1_{01} transition of ortho-water at 557 GHz toward 12 molecular cloud cores. The water emission was detected in NGC 7538, Rho Oph A, NGC 2024, CRL 2591, W3, W3(OH), Mon R2, and W33, and was not detected in TMC-1, L134N, and B335. We also present a small map of the water emission in S140. Observations of the H_2^{18}O line were obtained toward S140 and NGC 7538, but no emission was detected. The abundance of ortho-water relative to H_2 in the giant molecular cloud cores was found to vary between 6x10^{-10} and 1x10^{-8}. Five of the cloud cores in our sample have previous water detections; however, in all cases the emission is thought to arise from hot cores with small angular extents. The water abundance estimated for the hot core gas is at least 100 times larger than in the gas probed by SWAS. The most stringent upper limit on the ortho-water abundance in dark clouds is provided in TMC-1, where the 3-sigma upper limit on the ortho-water fractional abundance is 7x10^{-8}.Comment: 5 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses aastex.cls, emulateapj5.sty (included), and apjfonts.sty (included

Atomic Carbon in M82: Physical conditions derived from simultaneous observations of the [CI] fine structure submillimeter wave transitions

We report the first extragalactic detection of the neutral carbon [CI] 3P2-3P1 fine structure line at 809 GHz. The line was observed towards M82 simultaneously with the 3P1-3P0 line at 492 GHz, providing a precise measurement of the J=2-1/J=1-0 integrated line ratio of 0.96 (on a [K km s^-1] -scale). This ratio constrains the [CI] emitting gas to have a temperature of at least 50 K and a density of at least 10^4 cm^-3. Already at this minimum temperature and density, the beam averaged CI-column density is large, 2.1 10^18 cm^-2, confirming the high CI/CO abundance ratio of approximately 0.5 estimated earlier from the 492 GHz line alone. We argue that the [CI] emission from M82 most likely arises in clouds of linear size around a few pc with a density of about 10^4 cm^-3 or slightly higher and temperatures of 50 K up to about 100 K.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, ApJL in press, postscript also available at ftp://apollo.ph1.uni-koeln.de/pub/stutzki/m82_pap.ps.gz e-mail-contact:[email protected]

Mexican World Heritage information on the web: Institutional presence and visibility

This study offers a global overview of the presence and visibility of web information on UNESCO World Heritage located in Mexico, via the analysis of official websites and Web 2.0 information. Cultural heritage is a determining factor in linking people to their history, and contributes to increasing cultural tourism and economic development. The study starts from the hypothesis that the design of these has an influence on the dissemination and popularity of the aforementioned heritage. The relationships between the administrative organization of the country and Internet protocols are compared. A webometric study of the official Mexican websites was carried out. An evaluation sheet was designed to allow the assessment of aspects relating to identification, presence, accessibility and content. The multilingual nature of this information and its presence on social networks and Wikipedia was analysed. The analysis of URLs confirms that the domain .mx is used in 84% of cases. The results indicate a noticeable use of Web 2.0 dissemination of the heritage assets on YouTube (51%) and Facebook (40%), followed by 23% on Twitter. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines are not yet frequently applied. Finally, the results obtained make it possible to identify variables that can contribute to improvements in the visibility and dissemination of official web information.This paper was supported by the RD & I Project, HAR2012-38562 (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness)

First observations with CONDOR, a 1.5 THz heterodyne receiver

The THz atmospheric windows centered at roughly 1.3 and 1.5~THz, contain numerous spectral lines of astronomical importance, including three high-J CO lines, the N+ line at 205 microns, and the ground transition of para-H2D+. The CO lines are tracers of hot (several 100K), dense gas; N+ is a cooling line of diffuse, ionized gas; the H2D+ line is a non-depleting tracer of cold (~20K), dense gas. As the THz lines benefit the study of diverse phenomena (from high-mass star-forming regions to the WIM to cold prestellar cores), we have built the CO N+ Deuterium Observations Receiver (CONDOR) to further explore the THz windows by ground-based observations. CONDOR was designed to be used at the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) and Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). CONDOR was installed at the APEX telescope and test observations were made to characterize the instrument. The combination of CONDOR on APEX successfully detected THz radiation from astronomical sources. CONDOR operated with typical Trec=1600K and spectral Allan variance times of 30s. CONDOR's first light observations of CO 13-12 emission from the hot core Orion FIR4 (= OMC1 South) revealed a narrow line with T(MB) = 210K and delta(V)=5.4km/s. A search for N+ emission from the ionization front of the Orion Bar resulted in a non-detection. The successful deployment of CONDOR at APEX demonstrates the potential for making observations at THz frequencies from ground-based facilities.Comment: 4 pages + list of objects, 3 figures, to be published in A&A special APEX issu

Discovery of water vapour in the carbon star V Cygni from observations with Herschel/HIFI

We report the discovery of water vapour toward the carbon star V Cygni. We have used Herschel's HIFI instrument, in dual beam switch mode, to observe the 1(11) - 0(00) para-water transition at 1113.3430 GHz in the upper sideband of the Band 4b receiver. The observed spectral line profile is nearly parabolic, but with a slight asymmetry associated with blueshifted absorption, and the integrated antenna temperature is 1.69 \pm 0.17 K km/s. This detection of thermal water vapour emission, carried out as part of a small survey of water in carbon-rich stars, is only the second such detection toward a carbon-rich AGB star, the first having been obtained by the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite toward IRC+10216. For an assumed ortho-to-para ratio of 3 for water, the observed line intensity implies a water outflow rate ~ (3 - 6) E-5 Earth masses per year and a water abundance relative to H2 of ~ (2-5) E-6. This value is a factor of at least 1E+4 larger than the expected photospheric abundance in a carbon-rich environment, and - as in IRC+10216 - raises the intriguing possibility that the observed water is produced by the vapourisation of orbiting comets or dwarf planets. However, observations of the single line observed to date do not permit us to place strong constraints upon the spatial distribution or origin of the observed water, but future observations of additional transitions will allow us to determine the inner radius of the H2O-emitting zone, and the H2O ortho-to-para ratio, and thereby to place important constraints upon the origin of the observed water emission.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (HIFI special issue

First results on Martian carbon monoxide from Herschel/HIFI observations

We report on the initial analysis of Herschel/HIFI carbon monoxide (CO) observations of the Martian atmosphere performed between 11 and 16 April 2010. We selected the (7-6) rotational transitions of the isotopes ^{13}CO at 771 GHz and C^{18}O at 768 GHz in order to retrieve the mean vertical profile of temperature and the mean volume mixing ratio of carbon monoxide. The derived temperature profile agrees within less than 5 K with general circulation model (GCM) predictions up to an altitude of 45 km, however, show about 12-15 K lower values at 60 km. The CO mixing ratio was determined as 980 \pm 150 ppm, in agreement with the 900 ppm derived from Herschel/SPIRE observations in November 2009.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (special issue on HIFI first results); minor changes to match published versio

Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite Observations of Extended Water Emission in Orion

We have used the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite to map the ground-state 1_{10}-1_{01} transition of ortho-water at 557 GHz in the Orion molecular cloud. Water emission was detected in Orion over an angular extent of about 20 arcmin, or nearly 3 pc. The water emission is relatively weak, with line widths (3-6 km s^{-1}) and V_{LSR} velocities (9-11 km s^{-1}) consistent with an origin in the cold gas of the molecular ridge. We find that the ortho-water abundance relative to H_2 in the extended gas in Orion varies between 1 and 8x10^{-8}, with an average of 3x10^{-8}. The absence of detectable narrow-line ortho-H_2^{18}O emission is used to set a 3-sigma upper limit on the relative ortho-water abundance of 7x10^{-8}.Comment: 4 pages, 2 Postscript figures, uses aastex.cls, emulateapj5.sty (included), and apjfonts.sty (included

Herschel observations of extra-ordinary sources: Detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines

We have observed CH absorption lines ($J=3/2, N=1 \leftarrow J=1/2, N=1$) against the continuum source Sgr~B2(M) using the \textit{Herschel}/HIFI instrument. With the high spectral resolution and wide velocity coverage provided by HIFI, 31 CH absorption features with different radial velocities and line widths are detected and identified. The narrower line width and lower column density clouds show `spiral arm' cloud characteristics, while the absorption component with the broadest line width and highest column density corresponds to the gas from the Sgr~B2 envelope. The observations show that each `spiral arm' harbors multiple velocity components, indicating that the clouds are not uniform and that they have internal structure. This line-of-sight through almost the entire Galaxy offers unique possibilities to study the basic chemistry of simple molecules in diffuse clouds, as a variety of different cloud classes are sampled simultaneously. We find that the linear relationship between CH and H$_2$ column densities found at lower $A_V$ by UV observations does not continue into the range of higher visual extinction. There, the curve flattens, which probably means that CH is depleted in the denser cores of these clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, HIFI Special Issu

Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources: The Terahertz spectrum of Orion KL seen at high spectral resolution

We present the first high spectral resolution observations of Orion KL in the frequency ranges 1573.4 - 1702.8 GHz (band 6b) and 1788.4 - 1906.8 GHz (band 7b) obtained using the HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory. We characterize the main emission lines found in the spectrum, which primarily arise from a range of components associated with Orion KL including the hot core, but also see widespread emission from components associated with molecular outflows traced by H2O, SO2, and OH. We find that the density of observed emission lines is significantly diminished in these bands compared to lower frequency Herschel/HIFI bands.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Herschel HIFI special issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters, 5 pages, 3 figure