Physical and chemical characteristics of L1689-SMM16, an oscillating prestellar core in Ophiuchus
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2 (Canada)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
- The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George St., Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
- Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot, IRFU/Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 2, Green Bank, WV 24944 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, CH-8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
- Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
We present single-dish observations of the L1689-SMM16 core in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud in NH{sub 3} (1, 1) and (2, 2) emission using the Green Bank Telescope, in N{sub 2}H{sup +} (1-0) emission using the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, and in NH{sub 2}D (1{sub 1,1}{sup a}(--)1{sub 0,1}{sup s}), HCN (1-0), HNC (1-0), H{sup 13}CO{sup +} (1-0), and HCO{sup +} (1-0) emission using the Mopra telescope. The morphologies of the integrated NH{sub 3} (1, 1) and N{sub 2}H{sup +} (1-0) emission well match that of 250 μm continuum emission. Line widths of NH{sub 3} (1, 1) and N{sub 2}H{sup +} (1-0) show the presence of transonic turbulence across the core. Jeans and virial analyses made using updated measurements of core mass and size confirm that L1689-SMM16 is prestellar, i.e., gravitationally bound. It also has accumulated more mass compared to its corresponding Jeans mass in the absence of magnetic fields and therefore is a 'super-Jeans' core. The high levels of X(NH{sub 3})/X(N{sub 2}H{sup +}) and deuterium fractionation reinforce the idea that the core has not yet formed a protostar. Comparing the physical parameters of the core with those of a Bonnor-Ebert sphere reveals the advanced evolutionary stage of L1689-SMM16 and shows that it might be unstable to collapse. We do not detect any evidence of infall motions toward the core. Instead, red asymmetry in the line profiles of HCN (1-0) and HNC (1-0) indicates the expansion of the outer layers of the core at a speed of ∼0.2 km s{sup –1} to 0.3 km s{sup –1}. For a gravitationally bound core, expansion in the outer layers might indicate that the core is experiencing oscillations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365474
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 790, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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