1. Water vapor toward starless cores: The Herschel view
- Author
-
Doug Johnstone, Steven D. Doty, Per Bjerkeli, Pierre Encrenaz, Dominicus Kester, F. Daniel, Jes K. Jørgensen, F. F. S. van der Tak, M. Marseille, Asunción Fuente, Geoffrey A. Blake, Christophe Risacher, A. Megej, Hamid Javadi, Javier R. Goicoechea, Jonathan Braine, J. Santiago-Garcia, John C. Pearson, Fabrice Herpin, Dariusz C. Lis, Arnold O. Benz, T. A. van Kempen, David A. Neufeld, Carsten Dominik, P. Siegel, T. Jacq, Simon Bruderer, Gregory J. Herczeg, T. Giannini, Umut A. Yildiz, Berengere Parise, Michiel R. Hogerheijde, Friedrich Wyrowski, E. F. van Dishoeck, P. Saraceno, Th. de Graauw, W. Luinge, Eric Keto, Sylvain Bontemps, René Liseau, José Cernicharo, A. Di Giorgio, Milena Benedettini, C. Codella, Ruud Visser, Lars E. Kristensen, C. McCoey, B. Larsson, Rafael Bachiller, Russel Shipman, Brunella Nisini, Brian Jackson, Gary J. Melnick, Alain Baudry, S. F. Wampfler, M. Tafalla, Paola Caselli, W. M. Laauwen, Todd Gaier, M. Fich, Edwin A. Bergin, Yuri Aikawa, R. Plume, Laurent Pagani, Michael Olberg, Frank Helmich, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri (OAA), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique (LERMA), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Cergy Pontoise (UCP), Université Paris-Seine-Université Paris-Seine-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Kapteyn Astronomical Institute [Groningen], University of Groningen [Groningen], Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Smithsonian Institution-Harvard University [Cambridge], INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma (OAR), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (LAOG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac] (LAB), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1, Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux (L3AB), Laboratoire Optimisation de la Conception et Ingénierie de l'Environnement (LOCIE), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CSIC), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek (AI PANNEKOEK), University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] (UvA), SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology [Göteborg], Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements (CESR), Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, ESO, European Southern Observatory (ESO), Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIFR), Low Energy Astrophysics (API, FNWI), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Harvard University-Smithsonian Institution, Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
- Subjects
Astronomy ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics ,INITIAL CONDITIONS ,7. Clean energy ,ISM: clouds ,OXYGEN ,Gas phase ,PRESTELLAR CORES ,Radiative transfer ,TEMPERATURE ,Physics ,stars: formation ,DENSE INTERSTELLAR CLOUDS ,Research Programm of Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics ,[SDU.ASTR.SR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR] ,astrochemistry ,Molecular cloud ,Photodissociation ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,[PHYS.ASTR.SR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [astro-ph.SR] ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,MOLECULAR-IONS ,molecular processes ,L1544 ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,radiative transfer ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,ComputingMethodologies_DOCUMENTANDTEXTPROCESSING ,PRE-STELLAR CORES ,ABUNDANCE ,line: formation ,DEPLETION ,Water vapor ,Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
SWAS and Odin provided stringent upper limits on the gas phase water abundance of dark clouds (x(H2O) < 7x10^-9). We investigate the chemistry of water vapor in starless cores beyond the previous upper limits using the highly improved angular resolution and sensitivity of Herschel and measure the abundance of water vapor during evolutionary stages just preceding star formation. High spectral resolution observations of the fundamental ortho water (o-H2O) transition (557 GHz) were carried out with Herschel HIFI toward two starless cores: B68, a Bok globule, and L1544, a prestellar core embedded in the Taurus molecular cloud complex. The rms in the brightness temperature measured for the B68 and L1544 spectra is 2.0 and 2.2 mK, respectively, in a velocity bin of 0.59 km s^-1. The continuum level is 3.5+/-0.2 mK in B68 and 11.4+/-0.4 mK in L1544. No significant feature is detected in B68 and the 3 sigma upper limit is consistent with a column density of o-H2O N(o-H2O) < 2.5x10^13 cm^-2, or a fractional abundance x(o-H2O) < 1.3x10^-9, more than an order of magnitude lower than the SWAS upper limit on this source. The L1544 spectrum shows an absorption feature at a 5 sigma level from which we obtain the first value of the o-H2O column density ever measured in dark clouds: N(o-H2O) = (8+/-4)x10^12 cm^-2. The corresponding fractional abundance is x(o-H2O) ~ 5x10^-9 at radii > 7000 AU and ~2x10^-10 toward the center. The radiative transfer analysis shows that this is consistent with a x(o-H2O) profile peaking at ~10^-8, 0.1 pc away from the core center, where both freeze-out and photodissociation are negligible. Herschel has provided the first measurement of water vapor in dark regions. Prestellar cores such as L1544 (with their high central densities, strong continuum, and large envelopes) are very promising tools to finally shed light on the solid/vapor balance of water in molecular clouds., Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (HIFI first results issue)
- Published
- 2010