Chemical composition of interstellar molecular clouds: a millimeter and submillimeter spectral line survey of OMC-1
Results are presented from a millimeter and submillimeter spectral line survey of the core of the Orion molecular cloud (OMC-1). The millimeter-wave survey, conducted at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO), covers a 55 GHz interval in 1.3 mm (23 GHz) atmospheric window and contains emission from 29 molecules. Together with the frequency selective submillimeter observations of H/sub 2/D/sup +/ (372.4 GHz), Cl(492.2 GHz), NH/sub 3/ (572.5 GHz), and HCl (625.9 GHz) performed from the NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory, over 800 emission lines have been detected from 33 chemically distinct species during the course of this work. The uniformly calibrated results from the unique and extensive OVRO spectral line survey place significant constraints on models of interstellar chemistry, and have allowed the chemical composition of the various regions in OMC-1 to be definitively characterized. A global analysis of the observed abundances showed that the markedly different chemical composition of the kinematically distinct Orion subsources may be simply interpreted in the framework of an evolving, initially quiescent, gas phase chemistry influenced by the process of massive star formation.
- Research Organization:
- Caen Univ., 14 (France). Lab. de Physique Corpusculaire
- OSTI ID:
- 5429322
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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